College Trustees Adopt Final Budget : Education: The three-campus district assumes it will receive $800,000 more from a bill awaiting the governor’s signature.

Ventura County’s community college trustees have adopted a final budget, but no one in the district is very happy about it.

The $59.6-million spending plan, about 5% leaner than last year’s budget, assumes that the three-campus district will receive $800,000 in additional state funds from a bill awaiting Gov. Pete Wilson’s signature.

No classes or part-time teaching positions have been eliminated yet, but administrators warned that if Wilson fails to sign the legislation, nothing would be spared from potential cuts.

Ventura County Community College District board members debated late into the night Tuesday whether to endorse a spending plan that relies on revenues from a bill that is not yet signed into law.

Up against a state-imposed deadline to pass a budget by today, trustees adopted the plan by a 3-2 vote after nearly three hours of discussion.

“What we’re doing is a smoke-and-mirror type of accounting, so we don’t have to make the hard decisions now,” said Trustee Gregory P. Cole, who joined Trustee Timothy D. Hirschberg in opposing the spending plan.

Hirschberg said it was “wishful thinking” to assume the governor will sign Assembly Bill 3474, which would make up some lost property-tax revenues for the state’s community colleges.

“I don’t see how we can provide (the state) with a document on how we propose to spend the money, when they just told us we’re not going to have (the tax revenues),” Hirschberg said.

A spokesman for Wilson said Wednesday that the governor would probably make a decision on the legislation next week.

Board President Allan W. Jacobs urged trustees to adopt the budget, but warned that the district should brace for possible layoffs.

“Every year you know you may get money and you may not get money,” Jacobs said. “We can dig out of this budget the $800,000 (if necessary). We’ve done it before.”

Trustee Karen Boone supported the plan with the caveat that the district staff be directed to draw up a specific list of recommended cuts in case the funding fails to come through.

“I want to see a plan in place right away, rather than procrastinating,” she said.

Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin, who promised to prepare a list of recommended cuts by next month, defended the final budget proposal as the best the district could come up with in light of its uncertain economic status.

“We’ve been in a painful situation for the three years I’ve been here. We haven’t avoided anything,” Lakin said. “We can’t simply knee-jerk every time we find (out) some new information from the state.”

Complicating the issue is more than $500,000 in bookstore profits drawing interest in a Ventura College account. Cole suggested that money could pare the deficit to $300,000. But college President Jesus Carreon and others warned against spending it.

“To raid every account and make sure that nothing exists in all the other accounts through the district may not be prudent,” Carreon told trustees.

Ventura College student body officer James Armendariz said trustees should not touch the $500,000 in bookstore profits.

“Nowhere in your own rules does it say you can do this,” Armendariz told the trustees. “Instead of raiding stuff, take a look at expenditures. Eliminate trustee stipends or a couple of management positions.”

Lakin and others said transferring bookstore profits to the general fund would be a last resort.

“I’ll do everything possible to avoid layoffs, and if that means tapping the Ventura College bookstore account, we’ll tap it,” the chancellor said.

The $59.6-million budget is $3.1 million less than the district spent last year--primarily due to a sharp decrease in property tax revenues collected by the state.

Almost 90% of the budget goes toward salary and benefits for the district’s more than 1,300 employees.

But it also includes $157,100 for travel costs, $202,783 for management consultants, and $50,000 for legal fees. Later in the meeting, trustees delayed approving a $25,000 contract for its Sacramento-based legislative analyst.

The often-heated debate seemed to exasperate Lakin, who has faced similar budget cuts in each of the last three years.

“I’ve reached the conclusion that my job isn’t fun anymore,” he said at one point during the discussion. “This job used to be fun.”