Wilson Spending Plan Would Cost County

Gov. Pete Wilson’s new state budget plan would reduce funding to Orange County law enforcement agencies and jeopardize a critically needed dredging of Upper Newport Bay, county officials said Wednesday.

County government alone would lose more than $9 million under the governor’s budget, including $2.4 million that the Probation Department uses to help operate its three camps for juvenile delinquents.

The Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office together would lose about $2.5 million. The money had been earmarked for an additional 21 employees for the district attorney, and various facility improvements for the Sheriff’s Department, including work on the expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange.

“We are going to have to regroup to deal with this,” said Gary Burton, the county’s chief financial officer.

The cuts represent only a fraction of the county’s $3.4-billion budget, but Burton said the Board of Supervisors can replace the money cut by Wilson’s budget plan only by making cuts elsewhere.

Environmentalists and local officials were especially alarmed at the loss of funding for the dredging of Upper Newport Bay, which has become clogged with tons of sediment that threatens to turn the estuary into a marsh.

Silt and sand have created mud flats and sandbars that are forcing waterfowl and fish to feed outside of their natural habitat. The buildup has also made it more difficult for boats to navigate the bay.

Burton said the state agreed earlier this year to provide $4 million for the dredging effort, which was scheduled to begin later this year.

But Wilson’s new plan uses $1.3 billion that lawmakers had planned to spend on this and hundreds of other projects to pay off a legal judgment owed to the Public Employees Retirement System, which didn’t receive all of the contributions it should have when the state was facing budgetary shortfalls in 1994 and 1996.

Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson said that while he understands the governor’s position, he remains hopeful that money for the dredging will be restored in the final budget.

“I’m adamant about getting this funding, and I am calling everyone and anyone to express my concerns,” said Wilson, who represents the Newport Beach area. “I’m in contact with the governor’s office and our delegation.”

The supervisor said delays in the dredging would only make the problem worse, given forecasts of heavy winter rains in Southern California because of an extreme “El Nino” condition in the Pacific.

“The creeks will fill up and more sediment will just collect in the bay,” Wilson said. “It will make it more difficult and expensive to dredge when we do. . . . We have to get ahead of the curve.”

The reductions in law enforcement funding are not expected to dramatically affect the county and probably won’t delay the Theo Lacy jail expansion. But it will force departments, and ultimately the Board of Supervisors, to decide how to make up for the losses.

“There are going to have to be a lot of hard choices,” said Rod Speer, an analyst with the Probation Department.