SCV BENEFITS FROM STATE BUDGET; CITY, LOCAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGE TO RECEIVE $2.7 MILLION.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The long-overdue state budget that Gov. Pete Wilson signed was worth the wait for the city and local schools, which reaped $2.7 million in funding for renovations, maintenance and other programs.

California's $75.4 billion budget for the 1998-99 fiscal year included $916,000 to help pay for the overhaul of classrooms at College of the Canyons, $350,000 to repair and modernize one or both of the auditoriums at Hart High School and Newhall Elementary School, and $1.5 million in vehicle registration fees and state gas tax revenues for the city of Santa Clarita, according to a statement by Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster.

The $1.5 million doesn't represent new revenue but rather existing revenue that was in danger of being cut, said Steve Stark, the city's director of administrative services.

This year, the city was due to receive $6.2 million from the registration fees that Californians pay annually to the Department of Motor Vehicles and that the state returns to cities based on their population.

The gas tax, meanwhile, is figured into the price that customers pay at the pump. The city was scheduled to receive $2.5 million in those funds, Stark said.

A bill before the state Legislature sought to protect local governments' shares of the state DMV and gas tax funds from being scaled back. The bill applied to cities incorporated on or after January 1987; Santa Clarita incorporated in December 1987.

``Had this legislation not passed, we would have received approximately $1 million less in vehicle license fees and $500,000 less in gas tax,'' Stark said.

Gasoline tax revenues are spent on street maintenance and repairs. Vehicle license registration fees are deposited into the city's general fund to pay for services like law enforcement and parks, Stark added.

Meanwhile, at College of the Canyons, renovations are under way to transform floors of the I Building that once housed the campus library into classrooms. The $3.2 million renovation project also includes other locations on campus, including the L Building and the T building.

Whether the college would receive this $916,000 in funding also was uncertain because the Legislature had considered making that part of a multibillion-dollar education bond intended for the November ballot, said Nicolas Ferguson, assistant superintendent of administrative services at College of the Canyons.

The $916,000 represented funds to purchase equipment and furniture for the new classrooms, Ferguson said.

More than a dozen newly remodeled classrooms are now in use.

The state awarded the funds to College of the Canyons based in part on the school's booming enrollment.

``We've been one of the fastest growing community colleges in the state,'' Ferguson said.

As for the auditoriums, the Hart High facility has been closed since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Some renovations have been made, but the repairs can't be completed until sufficient funds have been raised for the scope of the work.

District officials say the 900-seat auditorium's renovations could be complete by next spring. The 46-year-old hall needs quake repairs, an air-conditioning system, new upholstery on its chairs, new lighting, a replastering of the walls, paint, new carpeting and a reconstruction of the ceiling that fell in the quake.

The Newhall Elementary auditorium has been closed for 20 years and is used by the Newhall School District to store supplies and equipment.

Officials have estimated it would cost $1.2 million to restore the Newhall Elementary auditorium - built in the 1940s - and bring it into compliance with modern building codes.