FEE CUT COULD DEVASTATE VENTURA COUNTY SERVICES.

Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer

VENTURA - Ventura County government would be forced to cut as many as 1,700 jobs and slash public-safety spending if the state does not compensate for revenue lost from slashed car license fees, the county's executive officer said Tuesday.

If county government loses the $36 million share of license fee revenues that budget drafters expected, local officials would have to consider eliminating jobs from the county's work force of 8,000, County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston told the Board of Supervisors.

Officials also would have to consider cutting nearly $23 million from the county general fund's $128 million contribution to public safety budgets, Johnston said.

Supervisors must send a message to Sacramento that local governments can't just ``suck it up'' and absorb the shortfall, Johnston said.

``That will not solve the problem,'' he said. ``This is not just scare tactics.''

Supervisor Judy Mikels plans to travel to Sacramento today to take part in a rally by local government leaders protesting the loss of revenue, she said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's promise that cities and counties would not lose funds from the car tax reduction fell flat this week when his office notified local governments that it will be $254 million short of the $381 million December payment of car tax revenues due this week.

Next month, local governments will receive nothing from car tax revenues, as state officials will use what is left in the fund to pay $600 million in refunds to motorists who overpaid the fees this fall.

Johnston presented a breakdown of how the cuts could be applied to the county budget. Although he emphasized that he wasn't making a proposal, Johnston cautioned that hard choices would need to be made.

A $5 million cut to the $30 million in county revenues for the Health and Human Services Department would result in slashing all but 300 of the agency's 1,022 jobs, Johnston said.

Cutting the county general fund contribution to public safety by nearly 18 percent would eliminate jobs of 295 of the 2,260 people who work for the sheriff, public defender, probation department, and district attorney, Johnston said.

Under an alternate breakdown that would exclude public safety cuts, contributions to county general government, the planning agency, the agricultural commission, animal regulation, and health-human services would be slashed in half, said Paul Derse, county deputy executive officer.

Supervisor John Flynn said he would like to see the revenue system restructured so that cities, which he said have greater opportunities to raise funds, make financial contributions toward countywide services.

``Something's going to have to give,'' Flynn said. ``We're headed toward a crash unless we start to make some changes.''

Andrea Cavanaugh, [phone]

andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com