$1.2-Billion Budget Plan for L.B.: More Services Sought

LONG BEACH —  Despite sharp cuts in federal grants and oil revenues, the city manager has forwarded to the City Council a $1.2-billion 1986-87 budget that, if adopted, will put another 41 police officers in uniform, boost health and human services and return city-supervised recreational activities to 1978 levels.

The fiscal plan provides for spending increases in nearly all areas of public service, including a $21.4-million, or 11.8%, boost in the $202.2-million portion of the budget over which the City Council has direct control.

This increase in services requires, however, that the city spend most of a $28.7-million budget surplus accumulated over the last several years.

Discretionary Budget

Traditional municipal services such as police and fire protection, libraries, parks, health services and city maintenance are all covered by this so-called discretionary budget.

After a series of public briefings in individual council districts, the full council will consider the budget package at a hearing June 10. It must be adopted by July 1.

The council has little control over the bulk of the $1.212-billion overall city budget, since about $1 billion is tied up in self-supporting city agencies such as the gas and water departments, the airport, waste disposal services and the harbor. The proposed overall budget is down 14% from this year’s $1.415-billion budget, mostly because state oil revenues that are funneled through a city-run trust are expected to plunge by $178 million next fiscal year, said City Manager John E. Dever.

Agencies Doing Well

This plunge in revenues will have no effect on city services because the money is simply passed through the city to the state, he said.

Other self-supporting agencies are doing well, although 5% increases in garbage collection and marina slip fees--the only increases in city taxes or fees--are being proposed, he said.

The council-controlled discretionary budget reflects a recent “near-record” boom in local home, business and industrial development, which will pump about $3.5 million more in property, sales and other local taxes into the city treasury in 1986-87, Dever said.

However, the boom comes as outside economic and political forces are playing havoc with municipal income. Next fiscal year the city will lose $2.2 million in oil revenue, about $7.7 million in federal aid and $9 million in returns on investments because of declining interest rates, said Dever.

Liability Costs Jump

In addition, liability insurance costs, a nationwide problem, will cost the city $1.9 million next year, nearly three times this year’s insurance expenditure, and a decrease in natural gas prices has reduced by $2.3 million or 16% the franchise fees the city will receive in 1986-87.

As a result, the city will have to spend nearly all of the large general-fund surplus it has kept for years as a safeguard against unforeseen economic downturns or emergencies, Dever said.

The city will enter the fiscal year July 1 with a $28.7-million surplus, but will have just $3.9 million left by June 30, 1987, he projected. Dever’s estimates of the city surplus have been conservative. For example, his previous budget said the city would carry only $13 million into the 1986-87 fiscal year, but the surplus is now expected to be $28.7 million.

It is time to spend the surplus, Dever maintained at a press conference this week, because investors will shy away from Long Beach if they see the city is not doing its part to maintain basic services and improve the quality of life. Money should be spent to spur more private investment, he said.

Some of the new expenses covered by the surplus next fiscal year, such as the hiring of new employees, will continue into the future after the surplus is gone, Dever said. These ongoing costs will be paid for with the property and sales taxes anticipated from the current boom in residential, commercial and industrial development, he said.

Reflecting the desires of the City Council, Dever emphasized a proposed increase in manpower for public safety. He pointed to the 41-officer jump at the Police Department and the hiring of 16 additional firefighters. Together, those new employees would account for nearly all of the proposed 66-person increase in the city’s work force of 4,776. The Police Department also received 30 new employees this fiscal year and has seen its budget climb from $59.6 million in 1983-84 to a proposed $77.7 million next year.

Also budgeted are a police hookup to a state computerized fingerprint identification system and a new computer-assisted dispatch system for the Fire Department. Money to complete a new Alamitos Heights fire station, scheduled to open this summer, is also in the budget. Three of the 16 firefighters would be toxic-material specialists.

Human services, such as health, parks and recreation and libraries, also would receive a greater portion of the discretionary budget under the new spending plan. Recipient of just 13% of the discretionary budget this year, human services would receive 14.4% next year.

Dever is proposing a variety of improvements at city parks, with some of the money paying for the design of a new regional sports facility. In addition, a 5,750-square-foot parks and recreation headquarters has been under construction since December at El Dorado Park in east Long Beach.

Recreational Services

Hours at city-supervised recreation facilities, such as community centers, will also be increased on weekends and holidays, said Dever. “We’ve now fully re-implemented all those services lost” after the passage of property-tax-slashing Proposition 13 in 1978, Dever said.

Libraries would also be open longer, he said. Three health clinics would be refurbished and a new Health Department headquarters built. An animal control facility would also be built at Willow Street and Palm Drive during the next fiscal year, according to Dever.

About $630,000 set aside this year for the first time for community social service programs would also be awarded next year. And $300,000 in grants to local arts groups, first awarded this year, has also been included in the new budget. It was his understanding that the council wanted to continue such support, Dever said.

Figured into the budget are 4.5% combined salary and benefit increases for all non-administrative city employes, said Dever. Contract negotiations between the city and its three largest unions have been under way since early this year. The cost of living increased 3.9% in 1985, Dever said. PROPOSED BUDGET--WHAT WOULD GO UP The proposed city budget for fiscal 1986-87 includes $202.2 million in the areas over which the City Council has direct control. Here is a comparison of spending by selected departments for last year, this year and next year--including how some of the increase in the proposed budget would be spent next year:

Fire Fiscal 1984-85 $38.8 Million Fiscal 1985-86 $39.8 Million Fiscal 1986-87 $44.4 Million The Fire Department wants to add 16 firefighters, a computerized dispatch system and complete the Alamitos Heights fire station.

Health Fiscal 1984-85 $7.2 Million Fiscal 1985-86 $8.1 Million Fiscal 1986-87 $9.1 Million The budget includes money to refurbish three city-run health clinics. A new Health Department headquarters would be built.

Libraries Fiscal 1984-85 $8.4 Million Fiscal 1985-86 $9.8 Million Fiscal 1986-87 $11.2 Million Increases in the budget would extend library hours, add 6 full-time positions and computerize more library services.

Police Fiscal 1984-85 $64.5 Million Fiscal 1985-86 $71.1 Million Fiscal 1986-87 $77.7 Million The Police Department would add 41 officers and hook up to the state’s computerized fingerprint identification system.

Public Works Fiscal 1984-85 $53 Million Fiscal 1985-86 $62.7 Million Fiscal 1986-87 $68.7 Million About 25% of the increase would go for upgrading of the city’s infrastructure, including street lighting, traffic control and other improvements. Most of the budget boost would be spent on increased maintenance.

Parks and Recreation Fiscal 1984-85 $18 Million Fiscal 1985-86 $19.9 Million Fiscal 1986-87 $20.9 Million City Manager John Dever has proposed physical improvements to the parks and money to continue building a new department headquarters. The hours that recreation facilities are open on holidays and weekends would increase, restoring services to pre-Proposition 13 levels.