Budget Plan Would Cut County Jobs : Government: Proposal would expand criminal justice programs but reduce those in health and welfare. Library staff positions in jeopardy.

Ventura County’s top administrator Monday unveiled a preliminary $895-million budget that would expand criminal justice programs, while forcing sharp cuts in health and welfare services.

The proposed 1995-96 budget would increase overall spending by just 0.8% but would decrease the county’s work force by 118. Many who stand to lose their jobs are employees within the county library system.

In a two-year budget plan, Chief Administrator Lin Koester has put forth a combination of $12 million in budget reductions and the use of onetime revenues to balance the county’s budget this fiscal year, which began Saturday.

“There’s going to have to be some cuts,” Koester said in an interview. “It’s not as dire as I anticipated. But it’s still rather bleak.”

Koester’s plan would leave the county with a projected $26-million deficit for the 1996-97 fiscal year, and he suggests that supervisors consider additional cuts during budget hearings this month.

Board members themselves have proposed cutting $19 million this year and the same amount next year.

In his report, Koester warns that his $12-million budget reduction plan does not include any potential losses the county may suffer from state budget cuts.

“It looks right now like there won’t be any major cuts,” he said. “But anything can happen in Sacramento.”

More than half of the $12 million in Koester’s plan would come from cuts in health and welfare services, which include everything from mental health to general relief programs.

Koester said these reductions are in keeping with the supervisors’ mandate to cut agencies with the largest deficits. “That is the direction that the board has given,” he said.

The balance of the $12 million would come from increased revenues collected by the county this year, said Bert Bigler, the county’s budget director. These would include increases in sales tax, motor vehicle and interest-earning revenues, all of which rose largely because of an improved economy.

Although Koester’s budget plan includes a $785,000 subsidy for the county’s cash-strapped library agency, library officials said that they would still be forced to close seven of the county’s 16 libraries. They would also have to discontinue the library system’s adult and preschool literacy programs.

“It’s our fervent hope that the supervisors will find a way to fund these programs,” said Dixie Adeniran, director of the Library Services Agency. “They will certainly have to make that decision.”

Officials in Ventura and Ojai are already contemplating putting a special tax on their local ballots within the next year to keep their libraries open.

Meanwhile, the county’s public safety agencies will see a 5% increase in their combined budget of $185.7 million this fiscal year. These agencies include the sheriff’s, district attorney, public defender and probation departments.

Much of the increase will pay for operations of the new Todd Road Jail, officials said.

A large portion of the money would be derived from the passage of a county ordinance in May that guarantees all sales tax revenue generated from Proposition 172 will go to the designated public safety agencies. The half-cent sales tax is expected to bring the county more than $30 million this year.

The county ordinance also guarantees that the sheriff and other public safety agencies will not have their regular budgets cut and will get additional money to offset inflation.

But county supervisors and public safety officials disagree over whether the ordinance’s inflation provision applies to the current fiscal year. At stake is $1 million to $3 million in county money.

“This is going to have to be resolved within the next 30 days,” Koester said, noting that the supervisors will begin final budget deliberations July 25. They will begin holding the first of a series of budget study sessions Wednesday.

During the past five years, the county has been forced to cut more than $44 million in programs because of the recession and losses in state revenue.

“Every year it’s gotten worse,” Bigler said. “I’m anxiously awaiting the year when we can say, ‘Geez, things are headed in the other direction.’ ”

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County Budget Here’s a look at Ventura County’s proposed 1995-96 budget:

General Fund 1994-95 1995-96 % change Human Resources $193.4 million $192.0 million -0.7% Criminal Justice $176.9 million $185.7 million +5.0% Environmental $20.0 million $20.3 million +1.7% General Government $69.6 million $66.2 million -5.0% Other $32.0 million $25.4 million -20.6% Total General Fund $492.1 million $489.8 million -0.5% Non-General Fund $395.5 million $405.1 million +2.4% Total Budget $887.6 million $895.0 million +0.8%

Source: Ventura County chief administrative office