This Isn’t the Time for Pigheadedness : L.A. County balks at taking $100-million loan

Of all the times for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to draw a line in the sand on budgetary matters, this is the worst. How in good conscience can the board take the huge gamble of rejecting a critically needed $100 million that the Legislature has authorized? Its rationale: The money is a loan, not an outright gift.

The supervisors maintain that the county cannot incur more debt at this point and have demanded instead that Gov. Pete Wilson call a special legislative session to help the county out of its mess.

This is no time for brinkmanship. We need the $100 million and a special session. The county health care system is on the verge of collapse. State legislators have told the supervisors that they must accept the $100-million loan--from state transit funds--before there is any further legislative action. The county is in no position to call the shots but is trying to.

PROPERTY TAX LOSS: The board is playing tough in an attempt to make the point that the county’s predicament is a direct result of Sacramento siphoning off $1 billion in property taxes from the county to help balance the state budget. Sacramento rightly should help. It indeed had a large hand in creating this crisis. However, the board, with its years of a spend-till-it-catches-up-with-you philosophy, is hardly blameless. Now the extraordinary circumstances warrant that it forget any effort to be tightfisted and that it take the loan.

The supervisors’ recalcitrance in the loan matter sends all the wrong signals. Many state legislators already are looking askance at L.A. leaders for failing to develop consensus on local priorities.

In addition, disarray on the Los Angeles home front detracts from the marathon talks being conducted in Washington by county health czar Burt Margolin. He is mounting an eleventh-hour bid for additional federal funding to prevent a massive closure of county health services on Oct. 1. If the board can afford to pooh-pooh $100 million, why does it need $178 million in federal funds? Imagine how this must play in Washington.

In the late hours of the last day of the state Legislature’s session, a patchwork of bills that would have provided aid to Los Angeles County above the $100 million unraveled. Those bills could be quickly revived in a special legislative session.

NEW MONEY SOURCE: Under the circumstances, no one appreciates the Board of Supervisors standing on principle in rejecting the $100 million. It appears pigheaded and selfish. And while the board has been busy putting the blame on others, it has failed to take advantage of a state law that could free up to $70 million for the county. The funds require no action from the Legislature, merely an application to a state commission for so-called mandate relief based on “significant financial distress” that renders the county unable to provide basic county services.

The board should accept the $100 million to help light a fire under the governor to call for a special legislative session. Without either action, Los Angeles County’s fiscal nightmare could be unending.