SPENDING PLAN FOR CITY HOLDS LINE BARE-BONES BUDGET ENDORSED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Concerned that Santa Clarita could lose several million dollars next year because of the massive state budget crisis, the City Council on Tuesday endorsed a conservative spending plan.

The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to formally adopt the $163 million budget for 2003-04 on June 24. The spending plan rebuilds Santa Clarita's emergency reserve accounts, cuts spending and delays dozens of projects to cope with California's fiscal crisis.

``Based on the news from Sacramento, I'm very comfortable with our approach to the budget,'' said City Manager Ken Pulskamp. ``It's a good business budget.''

State officials said this week that it is unlikely the state will adopt a budget by midnight Sunday, the constitutional deadline. That leaves Santa Clarita's budget up in the air, as Democrats and Republicans wrangle over whether to hike taxes or to cut spending to fill the gap. Because of the uncertainty, the City Council rejected pleas from cultural-arts groups to restore funding for the popular community service grant program, which many cultural organizations rely on to make ends meet.

``These grants benefit people in a big way,'' said Tim Ben Boydston, director of the Canyon Theater Guild. ``This small amount of money is critically important to this community.''

Councilwoman Laurene Weste joked that she was willing ``to get out her kneepads and beg'' for the grants to be restored to the budget, but said she understood the need to wait until after the state adopts a spending plan.

``We're all disheartened about the loss of this money,'' Weste said. ``It is an important part of keeping our community together.''

Although Santa Clarita enjoyed multimillion-dollar surpluses for most of the past decade and rarely hesitated to share its wealth with charitable organizations, the 2003-04 budget focuses on merely maintaining basic city services in the face of the unprecedented fiscal crisis hammering the state.

``We're in better shape than most cities, but in the blink of an eye it could be different,'' said Councilman Bob Kellar.

As a hedge against the uncertainty created by the state's fiscal crisis, Santa Clarita's proposed budget doubles the city's operating reserve to $6 million and leaves an additional $3.5 million in the budget uncommitted.

Pulskamp also has proposed slashing $1.1 million from the city's budget by streamlining operations in the city's six departments.

In addition, Pulskamp has recommended putting $4 million in spending on hold until December. That includes the community grant program, funding for eight positions at City Hall, tree trimming, park and road maintenance, median landscaping and a new traffic signal.

While the budget contains funding for few new projects or programs, it sets aside more than $1 million for the operation and maintenance of the state-of-the-art Santa Clarita Aquatic Center and $200,000 more for other new parks.

Heather MacDonald, [phone]

heather.macdonald(at)dailynews.com