CRA FACING POSSIBLE JOB CUTS.

Byline: Eric Moses Daily News Staff Writer

As Los Angeles' urban renewal agency mulled its $276 million budget plan for 1998-99, its administrator told the board Thursday that some projects and staff jobs might be cut the next year unless property taxes rise.

The cost of debt and administration leaves the Community Redevelopment Agency with only $54 million for project work, down from $63 million the previous year. However, approximately $20 million is expected to be left over from this year's budget and would be available next year.

The board Thursday postponed a vote on the spending blueprint because the commissioners wanted more information about the agency's financial health. A meeting is tentatively set for May 27.

Of the proposed $276 million budget, more than $132 million is tied up in a reserve fund to back bonds the agency sold; $64.6 million is reserved for interest and repayments on bonds and loans; and $23.8 million is earmarked for salaries and benefits of 215 employees.

CRA chief John Molloy said the proposed budget is balanced, but warned that the agency needs to tread cautiously because its main revenue source, a portion of property taxes, has been dipping annually for the past seven years due to the region's real estate slump.

``1998 has always been predicted as the break year,'' Molloy said. ``I think that the next two tax rolls, if they don't show some kind of upturn, that next year we may have to look at further reductions.''

Should the budget woes continue, in addition to cutting staff, Molloy suggested reducing the number of projects, refinancing loans, selling CRA-owned property and again aggressively pursuing grants.

Keith Richman, a San Fernando Valley community activist who joined the board in January, said he was worried about the agency's dependence on onetime funds and finding money for any new projects.

``We don't have enough money looking out for the future to keep doing what we're doing,'' Richman said.

Richman noted that about $20 million in onetime revenues might not be available next year, meaning that if other revenue sources remain the same the agency will have about half the money budgeted for projects in 1998-99 in the next year.

Board Chairwoman Christine Essel acknowledged that as resources dwindled in the five years she has been a CRA board member, the agency has tried to change its role from fully running projects to overseeing them by organizing the funding from public and private sources.

``Maybe on the overall there aren't as many mega-projects going on,'' she said in an interview. ``However, what we have done is evolved into an agency that is able to leverage fewer dollars than we had in the past.''