COUNTY BUDGET INCLUDES MORE DEPUTIES, JAIL BEDS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

After three years of slashing public services, Los Angeles County officials said Monday that they have enough money in their $18.5 billion budget to start restoring critical programs and have targeted immediate increases for the jails and hiring more sheriff's deputies.

With 3 percent more money than last year, the supervisors made their budget centerpiece of a plan to restore $79 million to the Sheriff's Department to hire more than 900 employees and reopen several jails over the next two years.

The plan would create 4,474 more cell beds designed to boost capacity and eventually reduce the number of inmates granted early releases.

``I think the quality of life in Los Angeles County is going to go up because the people committing crimes are going to spend more time in jail,'' Sheriff Lee Baca said of the plan. ``The stick was taken away from the Sheriff's Department in the last three years with the budget cuts, but now the stick is back.''

The aggressive county budget - based on projections for a similar 3 percent increase in revenue in the year ahead - also targets increases in a variety of other programs including health services and parks and recreation.

But county officials acknowledged that much of the projected revenue gains to fund the budget proposal rests on the current boom in the housing market - and that outlook is less than certain.

The county's property tax revenues are expected to grow 9 percent in the year ahead - to a total of $2.7 billion; the county has budgeted for a 6 percent increase.

``I'm getting a little nervous about the property taxes,'' Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said. ``Nine percent is pretty high. And we're waiting to see if there is a market bubble. It's certainly starting to slow down a little bit.''

In addition to the boost from property tax revenues, the county's improved fiscal condition is the result of decreased workers' compensation costs and the passage last November of Proposition 1A, which prevents the state from raiding local property taxes.

But critics say Janssen's budget - $565 million more than the 2004-05 budget - ignores the county's collapsing health system.

In the budget plan, Janssen did warn that the department has only one more year before it runs out of its reserve funds and faces a $435 million deficit.

Health officials are expected to present to the Board of Supervisors in June various options about what health services to cut. Proposals could include hospital and clinic closures and restricting nonemergency care to U.S. citizens.

Meanwhile, the county's contributions to its employees' retirement system will jump $115 million on July 1 to a record $1.2 billion a year.

And the county is facing pressure from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, which includes $172 million in proposed cuts to the county, and President George W. Bush's budget, which includes $288 million in proposed reductions in health, community development and justice programs.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, criticized the county for proposing a budget that allocates spending for all of its projected revenue.

``The policy of spending all your money simply to make sure you don't have any left at the end of the year reflects the horrible incentives in public government finance,'' said Coupal. ``The notion to spend it or lose it is ill-advised at best.''

But Janssen said he's caught between a public demanding that Baca stop the early release of thousands of jail inmates and a federal judge who previously has blocked the county from cutting health services.

``I'm not going to say our strategy is to spend every dime and then hope somebody comes in and bails us out because they are not going to,'' Janssen said. ``The federal government is cutting Medicaid. The state is broke. We don't have a lot of options. Either we find new money, or we reduce services.''

The proposed budget sets aside $40 million in general fund money for the health department and allows the department to hire 153 employees.

The spending plan also includes an additional $99 million for public safety and justice programs, including $5 million to allow District Attorney Steve Cooley to hire 45 prosecutors and 10 investigators for his Interagency Homeland Security Task Force.

``The terrorism threat has not gone away,'' Cooley said. ``There is concern throughout the nation that real threats are posed and they need to be addressed in a meaningful and substantive way.''

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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PROPOSED L.A. COUNTY BUDGET

SOURCE: County of Los Angeles

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist