CITIES LEERY OF FUNDING GCC EXPECTS MAJOR SHORTFALL.

Byline: Susan Abram and Naush Boghossian Staff Writers

City halls and school districts in Glendale and Burbank appear to have been spared worst-case spending cuts under Gov. Gray Davis' revised budget plan, but local officials said Wednesday they want more details.

The governor's revised $96 billion spending plan relies more heavily on new taxes and on borrowing billions more to finance the state's $35 billion revenue gap than his earlier proposal did.

``I would say on its face, most of it sounds optimistic for us, but for the individual taxpayers, it's a hefty increase,'' said Burbank City Manager Mary Alvord. ``It looks like for local governments it's less impact.''

Burbank, grappling with a $9 million deficit, initiated a hiring freeze in January in response to Davis' initial plan.

Reaction by Glendale Community College officials was much gloomier.

The college is now looking at a deficit of more than $8 million next year under the new Davis plan - about $3 million more than what January's proposal would have caused.

``His proposal is still devastating to the system, and it hurts Glendale greatly,'' said Larry Serot, executive vice president of administrative services for the college. ``We feel it's disproportionate, and it's going to hurt us harder than anybody else.''

Serot was pleased that the proposed 45 percent cut in programs for economically disadvantaged and disabled students has been reduced to a 1.2 percent cut for each.

``Those were real concerns for us ... because they would have been devastating to our most needy students - from the economic and physical disability perspective,'' Serot said.

The Glendale Unified School District still will see a $5 million reduction in state allocations next year - but that is at least $4 million less than than officials had anticipated in January.

``It reduces by almost half our anticipated loss of funds,'' said Steve Hodgson, chief business and financial officer for the Glendale School District. ``It's still significant, but it's a lot better.''

The city of Glendale, meanwhile, was awaiting more details on how Davis' plan would affect housing, redevelopment and gas tax revenues.

Glendale had expected to lose $3 million per year in ongoing revenues and more than $9 million in one-time revenues in those three categories.

``We're cautious because of the lack of details on redevelopment, housing and the gas tax because it's not in the text of the proposal,'' said Bob Franz, the city's finance director.

``The fact that redevelopment and housing were not mentioned raises questions about whether those prior proposals are still on the table,'' he said.

Burbank School District Superintendent Gregory Bowman remained cautious about the revised proposal's impact on class sizes and school programs.

``While it's heartening to see that the governor has heard the choir, it's as important that the legislators also hear the choir and not pull the rug (from) under education,'' Bowman said.

The district already faces a $4 million budget deficit. Earlier this week, more than 40 teachers and counselors received layoff notices for next year.

Unlike many districts, however, Burbank had no intention of increasing class sizes, with the ratio of teachers to students in kindergarten through third grade to remain at 1 to 20, Bowman said.