1990 in Ventura County : YEAR IN REVIEW : Government Crisis : Funding Disappears

At the County Government Center and at city halls and school district offices throughout the county, the outcry was the same: “We wuz robbed!”

And local officials pointed to a familiar cast of suspects: the governor and the Legislature.

With expenditures growing and revenues less than anticipated, Gov. George Deukmejian and lawmakers passed a chunk of the shortfall to the state’s counties, cities and schools.

Ventura County, forced to cut $5.8 million from its 1990-91 spending plan, chopped mental health spending by a third, curbed indigent health care, reduced juvenile probation services and cut funds for representing indigent murder defendants.

Among the county’s cities, Camarillo was the most severely affected by the state cuts, losing $450,000 from its $8-million budget. Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks also lost about $500,000, but they had larger reserves to cushion the blows.

School districts were furious about getting only a 3% cost-of-living increase instead of 4.76%, which they said would more accurately reflect the rise in the cost of goods and services.

Another blow to cities and schools came when the Board of Supervisors, using newly granted authority from the Legislature, decided to charge the school districts for collecting taxes and to bill cities for each prisoner they booked into County Jail.

Looking Ahead

The local-government budget crisis is likely to get worse in 1991. State budget analysts predicted in December that another $5 billion to $6 billion in cuts or new revenue will be needed during the next 18 months. Meanwhile, there are predictions that the slumping economy will hurt local tax revenues at the same time social service needs are increasing.