Ventura Faces at Least $3.5 Million in Budget Cuts

Ventura officials on Tuesday urged City Council members to sharpen their budget axes because they will have to make at least $3.5 million in cuts this year--possibly more if the state Legislature makes further reductions in the city’s tax revenues.

“We’ve got an ugly scene in front of us,” Mayor Gregory L. Carson told his colleagues during a three-hour budget session.

City managers warned council members they will have to make hard decisions to eliminate $3.5 million from the city’s $50-million budget before its scheduled adoption June 30.

The council took no action Tuesday, but council members made a variety of suggestions for cutting costs.

Councilman Tom Buford said top city managers should consider taking a pay cut, and Carson suggested that council members even consider canceling the city’s popular Fourth of July fireworks show.

Council members’ ideas, in addition to staff recommendations, will be discussed in budget hearings beginning next week.

The council has already tentatively agreed to cut $1.3 million from the 1993-94 budget. Based on recommendations from city managers, the council in March decided to give layoff notices to 15 employees and announced that another 20 positions, some already vacant, would be eliminated.

Last month, city managers gave the council a proposal to slash up to $3.5 million more, eliminating as many as 41 jobs.

But at this point, city officials believe the council needs to make only $2.2 million more in cuts. The more Draconian proposals were made to allow the council to weigh a variety of options.

Yet none of the council members said they were frustrated with the proposed cuts received from city officials.

Every department would be hit under those proposals, with many programs dropped or scaled back. For example, the proposals would slice funding to social-service agencies, reduce money for maintenance of parks and streets and delay or eliminate some capital improvement projects.

“It’s not easy, and it’s not fun, and it’s not popular,” Councilman Gary Tuttle said. “But I think it’s what we were elected to do.”

Budget Director Michael Solomon blamed falling sales- and property-tax revenues--two primary sources of income for the city’s General Fund--for much of Ventura’s financial troubles.

Last year, property-tax revenues for 1993-94 were projected at $11.4 million, but that was before the state Legislature decided to shift a portion of property taxes from cities to make up for the state’s budget shortfall. Revised property-tax revenues for 1993-94 are estimated at $8.4 million, Solomon said.

Because of the recession, sales-tax estimates were also too high, Solomon said. Originally pegged at $13.7 million for 1993-94, they have been revised downward to $12.4 million, he said.

“It’s depressing,” Solomon said. “We don’t have this influx of money coming in.”

City officials said council members may have to cut deeper than $3.5 million, depending on what revenues the Legislature will return to cities this year.

Last year, Ventura lost about $1 million in property taxes to the state, and this year officials are expecting the city to lose another $2.2 million. City officials have already factored that loss into their budget calculations, but have not yet taken into account two other possible drains on the budget stemming from the Legislature’s decisions, Solomon said.

A bill being considered that would exempt sales taxes for manufacturing companies would cause Ventura to lose another $1.1 million, Solomon said. Gov. Pete Wilson also has proposed taking motor vehicle license fees away from cities, which would deprive Ventura of another $3.5 million.

“They could take it, and we couldn’t stop them,” Solomon said. “If you were the governor, wouldn’t you go after that?”

Solomon said if those two scenarios come to pass, most of the losses would be felt in the city’s 1994-95 budget.