ORANGE : Departments Told to ‘Tighten Their Belts’

City Manager David F. Dixon has told all department heads to “tighten their belts” to make up for a $750,000 loss during the current fiscal year because of the Orange County bankruptcy.

Dixon also told City Council members last week that city government must be restructured before he can balance the 1995-96 budget.

The midyear budget review was to have been the first report of good news in years, Dixon said. The city has cut $5 million in spending since the 1991-92 fiscal year, the budget report noted. Currently, city agencies are living within the $47-million budget.

“If we were not faced with black Dec. 1, we would be happy to present to you a midyear budget that is on-line,” Dixon said, referring to the county fiscal crisis. “We would be in an expansion mode right now. But we cannot do that because of dark December.”

In the “worst case” scenario, the city will lose $680,000 of its property taxes, Dixon said. Another $600,000 in interest from the $28 million the city had invested in the failed county pool is also gone, but Dixon said most of that will be made up by an unexpected increase in revenue from sales taxes and developer fees.

Department heads were asked to try to cut their current budgets by 3%, but without reducing services to residents, Dixon said, adding that some department budgets would be trimmed more than others. “We will be discussing each agency on its own merits,” he said.

Council members had little comment on Dixon’s report, but several said they would not support further cuts in the city’s library system. “I think the library has taken a disproportionate hit over the last three years,” Councilman Mike Spurgeon said.

Because Dixon did not disclose details of possible cuts, some residents who came to the budget review said they were dissatisfied with the information presented.

“It’s obvious they don’t know how (the bankruptcy) is going to affect this budget or the next budget,” activist Nick Lall said. “Why weren’t we discussing some specifics? This was the first midyear budget review I’ve ever been to and I can’t see why they bothered holding it.”