NEWS ANALYSIS : County Charts Risky Course With Budget

For better or worse, Los Angeles County has a working budget, but it is a rickety structure that could collapse at any number of points in the next six months, forcing weary officials and their constituents to start all over again.

In adopting its $13.5-billion budget Thursday, the Board of Supervisors has charted a risky course, in essence partly funding the county for several months, thus buying time for the rest of the year in the hopes that more revenues can be found. The risky part is that if the efforts fail it could end up costing the county more and mean even deeper cuts.

How much deeper, no one is quite sure yet. But it is a simple principle: The deeper into the fiscal year the county waits for relief, the shorter period there is to obtain funds and the more likelihood of deeper cuts.

“It is a budget based upon uncertainties,� Supervisor Ed Edelman said. “If things go against us, it will cause more pain and hardship later on. But I guess we were trying to minimize the pain now in the hopes that we won’t have to cut later on.�

The budget plan is wrought with chance, doubt, expectancy and gambles. It provides a wrenching moment in the county’s history in which the normal give and take of public service takes on deeper meaning.

Several examples of the kind of grief the county can expect emerged Friday.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, in an officewide memorandum, said that if $6.9 million in cuts to his office remain in force, he will lay off up to 150 prosecutors and an undetermined number of investigators and support staff. He said the 30-day notices could go out by mid-August.

“I’m still hopeful that together with the board we can go to Sacramento and get more money for Los Angeles,� he said. “We’re looking at every possibility.�

Meanwhile, a sheriff’s spokesman said Sheriff Sherman Block is still weighing the 2% cut in his department and may announce next week what impact it will have. The sheriff has threatened that any reductions could result in closure of at least one jail facility.

Across town, Dr. Reed Tuckson, president of the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in South-Central Los Angeles, considered the $100-million cut in health services that will mean laying off an estimated 1,500 workers and closing dozens of health clinics.

“The county supervisors just made a decision that will result in the deaths of thousands of people in this county,� he said. “It angers me that there is so little outrage over a decision like that.�

But at the Long Beach Comprehensive Health Center, which serves about 4,400 patients a month, workers and clients cannot believe that state legislators will let them down.

“Maybe we are all in denial but it just seems inconceivable,� said Dale Lieberfarb, a registered nurse and general manager of the center’s HIV clinic--the only county-run HIV clinic in the area. “What is going to happen to all these people?�

In the waiting room, Julia Arcularius, 61, said she has no health insurance, no family and no one else to help her.

“I’ve been coming here for the last four years and I don’t have to wait too long and I’m treated nice,� said Arcularius, who added that she once waited 13 1/2 hours at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for someone to tend to her abdominal pains.

A rocky road lies ahead for the county:

* In September, the fate of dozens of libraries and health clinics will be decided by the state’s action on two relief bills. The Legislature will decide whether to release $72.8 million in tobacco tax funds that would be used to operate four comprehensive health centers and 20 clinics scheduled to close Sept. 1.

* The Legislature will also decide whether to allow the county to create a library benefit assessment that would provide $32 million for the county’s 87 libraries. Without the assessment, 43 libraries that are scheduled to remain open at least through January would be forced to close.

* The county is also counting on state legislators to increase the tax on cigarette sales, which could net the county $114 million if enacted by Oct. 1.

The county should have news on all three efforts by the close of the legislative session Sept. 10.

* In October, the county and its 13 labor unions must come to some agreement over a proposed 8.25% pay cut, a reduction amounting to $215 million that has been calculated into the budget. Union leaders have said the rank and file will never accept a pay cut and have instead offered a package of revenue-raising suggestions as well as a plan by one of the largest unions to give up overtime pay this year at a savings to the county of $90 million.

Elliot Marcus, the county’s director of labor relations, said the county will seek bigger cuts the longer it takes to resolve the impasse.

“If the employees were to agree today, we would need about a 6.5% salary reduction; if they wait until December we’ll be looking at a 10% to 11% reduction,� he said. “Of course they are reluctant to be signatories to something that is distasteful to their employees but it’s in everybody’s interest to come to an agreement as soon as possible.�

* In November, a referendum on making a half-cent sales tax increase permanent will go before voters and could net local law enforcement agencies $174 million.

“If this fails, I think the board and all the other counties would desperately look to the governor and the legislators for relief,� county Finance Director Gerald A. Roos said. “It would mean another fiscal crisis and another midyear budget deliberation.�

There are a number of other land mines along the way:

Legal aid groups are planning to sue the county over cuts in welfare payments and health services. Richard Rothschild, director of litigation for the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said a lawsuit to block a 27% reduction in payments to General Relief welfare recipients is likely by mid-August. The cuts, reducing benefits to $212 from $293, take effect Sept. 1.

And the county could face legal action brought by local judges to block about $5.2 million in cuts in Superior and Municipal court budgets. The courts have lost state and county money, but the judges are ready to argue that because the state Constitution says the county is obligated to adequately fund courts, the county must come up with relief--in the case of the Superior Court about $27 million, said Judge Robert Mallano, presiding judge of the Superior Court. Mallano said that accepting the cuts would mean eliminating all civil court functions.

“The county is it--we have no other place to go,� Mallano said. “The alternative is unthinkable.�

Any setback will mean a return to the table, new deliberations and probably more cuts.

Times staff writers Faye Fiore, Frederick M. Muir, Tina Griego and Carmen Valencia contributed to this report.

Key Cuts in L.A. County Budget

Los Angeles County’s $13.5-billion budget for 1993-94 means deep cuts for many departments. Here is a list of some cuts and their impact on county services. DEPARTMENT: Beaches & Harbors, Administrators will meet Monday to discuss layoffs. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $26,230,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -15.16% DEPARTMENT: Children’s Services, Additional planned positions will be eliminated and salaries will be cut 8.25% across the board. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $307,391,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -2.48% DEPARTMENT: District Attorney, The office will lay off 150 prosecutors. The number of investigators and support staff is still to be determined. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $130,688,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -3.71% DEPARTMENT: Health Services, Department will lay off about 1,500 workers and shut down four to six comprehensive regional health centers and 29 to 41 community clinics by Sept. 1. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $4,093,506,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -2.77% DEPARTMENT: Libraries, All 87 libraries will remain open part time, with 43 remaining open only two days a week and operating hours at the other 44 cut to three or four days a week. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $39,480,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -42.73% DEPARTMENT: Mental Health, Across-the-board service cuts. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $325,082,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -1.19% DEPARTMENT: Museums, Possible cuts in hours. Administrators will meet Monday to discuss the number of layoffs. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $26,136,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -32.81% DEPARTMENT: Parks and Recreation, All county parks will remain open at some level, but most recreation programs will be cut. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $60,251,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -6.36% DEPARTMENT: Public Social Services, General Relief payments will be cut approximately 27%. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $565,666,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -3.70% DEPARTMENT: Sheriff, Will announce next week what impact budget cuts will have. Has threatened to close at least one jail. Amount Adopted 1993-94 BUDGET: $995,675,000 Changes From LAST YEAR: -2.31% Source: Los Angeles County chief administrative office.