Supervisors’ Fights Hinder Budget Talks : County: A month into a fiscal year with a $1.2-billion deficit, they can’t agree on how to spend $75 million a year they are seeking to shift from the MTA.

Another deadline for resolving the county’s budget crisis came and went Monday, as the Board of Supervisors squabbled among themselves about how to spend money they may never receive.

Now a full month into the new fiscal year, supervisors remain widely divided over how to deal with the county’s worst fiscal crisis, and they have delayed a decision on tough cuts until a special session scheduled for this afternoon.

Their brief afternoon meeting on Monday was notable only for its continued infighting, particularly among the three Democrats who control the board. They took potshots at each other, made personal asides about their honesty and their motivations, but making no progress in dealing with the crisis at hand.

With the county still facing a $1.2-billion budget deficit, the supervisors spent most of their public session wrestling over how to spend $75 million a year that could be diverted from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority under an urgent measure approved by the state legislature over the weekend. That legislation is still facing an uncertain future, as it sits on Gov. Pete Wilson’s desk awaiting his signature.

Although calmer, the meeting was a replay of the heated debate the supervisors had Friday when they eventually voted to back the plan to raid the MTA funds. Only this time, the board members could not agree on how to spend the money.

With critical choices before them, involving whether to close a hospital, shut down most of the health centers and clinics and lay off thousands of county employees, the board members struggled over where the $75 million should go.

“I thought this was for health,” said Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who has been critical of the proposed move against the MTA. “Now it’s for probation, libraries and other things? I would like to know what we’re doing here.”

Supervisor Mike Antonovich expressed a desire to see the money used for health, public safety, the district attorney, parks and libraries.

Board chairwoman Gloria Molina, who pointedly criticized her colleague Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, said, “Subways, museums, clinics--we can put it all on the table and hash it all out.” Molina didn’t say how she wants to spend the potential windfall, but she identified some other potential cuts, including the supervisors’ own office budgets and Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed’s office as well as museums and other cultural facilities.

“I think that’d be a good idea,” Yaroslavsky responded to Molina’s suggestion to open up the entire budget. “It’s up to us how to spend it. . . . As untasteful and unpalatable as the option may be, this is the only game in town, right now.”

Still, the biggest problems will likely get the biggest portion of the new money, Yaroslavsky acknowledged. “No matter how you slice it, any money we get . . . is wrapped into health because it’s the single biggest item we have,” Yaroslavsky said.

As the debate wore on, Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed was growing visibly impatient with the supervisors for once again putting off the hard choices on what to cut in order to balance the budget.

As they adjourned for the day, Reed headed straight for Molina, and told her that action was needed because each day of delay costs money the county does not have. “I’m very worried about it,” she told Molina. Later, in an interview, Reed added: “We need to get a budget done tomorrow. It’s critical.”

Molina did not respond directly to Reed, but moments earlier, upon gaveling the meeting to a close, Molina optimistically predicted that the budget would be addressed again today. But such predictions have been made before, only to have action postponed.

Delays in decision-making reflect a pattern of avoiding decisions that would shrink county government, noted the County Grand Jury in it’s annual report released just last week.

In a sharp critique of the county’s financial management, the grand jury warned that demands for social services and public safety continue to grow while the region’s economy has lost jobs and property values have been falling.

“Crunch time is approaching, if in fact it has not already arrived,” the grand jury said. “The board of supervisors will have no choice--either to find added revenues or reduce the level of delivered services.”

The panel made nine recommendations for improving the long-term fiscal health of the county, including creation of a blue-ribbon budget commission of civic, business and community leaders to assist in achieving responsible financial management. The grand jury also called for conservative revenue forecasts, prudent reserves to deal with emergencies, matching spending with ongoing revenues and maintaining spending at levels that are “reasonably predictable and sustainable.”

But the report so far has received no attention from the supervisors.

Supervisor Deane Dana, Yaroslavsky and Antonovich all said they were unfamiliar with the grand jury report and its recommendations. Yaroslavsky said he might support such a financial advisory commission, but Dana said he probably would not.

“Oh, God,” Dana said. “That’s all we need.”