Lost Tax Revenues Trigger Project Trims

In a six-hour workshop, the Agoura Hills City Council established a proposed 1996-97 budget that maintains current city programs but postpones indefinitely two long-planned projects after voters revoked a utility users tax last month, causing the city to lose about 20% of its general fund revenues.

“We’re not being pro-active and getting ahead, we’re just surviving,” said Mayor Pro Tem Fran Pavley at the meeting Tuesday night.

The $6.03-million proposed budget is scheduled to again be brought before the council July 24, when it is expected to be adopted.

Council members repeatedly noted that some projects included in the preliminary budget--such as a new library and improved traffic circulation on the Kanan Road/Ventura Freeway interchange--had to be discarded after voters repealed a 2-year-old tax that generated an average of $1.2 million annually in revenues.

However, the proposed budget does include a $25,000 allocation as the city’s share of the initial construction of a community center--a sum to be matched by Calabasas. Both cities are to receive $1.4 million in Proposition A funding from Los Angeles County for the shared center.

The budget also eliminates one staff position in the finance department as a result of installation of a more efficient computer system, City Manager Dave Adams said. The remaining 18 full-time city staff members will receive a 3% cost-of-living adjustment, the first in four years.

And after much discussion, the council tentatively restored $17,500 in funding for weed abatement along the freeway and other roadsides, as well as stepped-up litter removal from major streets.

The council also indicated it will deny requests from the county sheriff’s Lost Hills Station for $50,000 to be set aside for enforcement in areas of concentrated crime, and for a full-time community service officer to take reports and enforce parking rules. Otherwise, the law enforcement budget will remain unchanged.