Budget woes to get an airing

Paul Eakins and Kristopher Hanson

May 26, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- LONG BEACH -- In Long Beach's ongoing budget saga, the City Council's Budget Oversight Committee will hear important updates on the city's financial woes today .

How will Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's May revised budget, which includes borrowing $2 billion in property tax revenues from cities and counties, affect Long Beach?

What's the status of the unpaid employee furloughs that the council authorized May 5?

What is the city's long-range financial plan?

These are a few of the questions to which the three-member committee should get some answers, according to the meeting agenda. The committee meets at 3:30 p.m. in City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.

The council and the public already have heard bits and pieces of the answers in recent weeks as city management worked through the process of eliminating a $19.2 million deficit in the current fiscal year and began planning for a $43.5 million deficit in the 2010 fiscal year, which begins

Oct. 1.

City officials have said that with voters' rejection of the state budget propositions this week, the governor's planned property tax borrowing could add a $10 million hit to Long Beach's revenue.

The enactment of the furloughs also may not be a foregone conclusion, even though city officials have announced new schedules that include closing City Hall and many other services on the last Friday of each month.

First, when the council approved the furloughs, they

exempted police and firefighters, asking the departments to come up with other cost-saving measures.

But members of the police union, at least, have made it clear they don't have much to give during the current fiscal year. The firefighters union, on the other hand, agreed to a 1.9 percent pay cut, which is the savings equivalent of a weeklong furlough.

Then last week, the city's largest employee union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said it was filing a complaint with the state Public Employee Relations Board over the furloughs.

If $4 million can't be saved by police, firefighters and other employees taking furloughs or by other means, then Long Beach will surely face cuts to programs and services.

That's only in the current fiscal year. Next year will be even worse, which is why the details of the city's long-term financial plan are so important.

To eliminate the 2010 fiscal year's $43.5million budget deficit, City Manager Pat West is asking employees to forgo their pay raises. Even that will only eliminate a little over half of the shortfall.

City departments will have to cut an average of 6 percent from their budgets to make up the rest, and that doesn't take into account any state borrowing.

Another unknown is any impact from the near-halving of the city's Tidelands Trust transfer from the Harbor Department, which is expected to sink from $16 million to $8.6million in FY 2010.

The transfer, which supports beachfront operations like lifeguards and beach maintenance, is made under a long-standing agreement under which the city gets a 10 percent slice of total port profit.

How that revenue drop affects beach and marine operations is unknown, though it's unlikely the city will draw from other areas to fill the hole.

"It's a bad situation all around," said Long Beach City Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, whose 2nd District includes the port. "Everybody's looking for ways to make this work, but in the end, painful cuts seem inevitable."

On a positive note, the port plans to increase spending for police and fire services in the harbor -- from $15 million to $18 million -- while setting aside $3.4 million to begin work on a new fire station on Pier D.

Once again, with public safety (i.e., police and firefighters) named the council's top priority, it seems likely that other services, such as libraries and parks and recreation, will suffer most.

paul.eakins@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1278

kristopher.hanson@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1466

Newstex ID: 35236747