ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Bracing for the Budget Crunch

As Yogi Berra might have said, it was “ deja vu all over again” when Orange County administrators announced plans Tuesday to make deep cuts in next year’s county budget, especially in health services for the poor. Only a year ago, the county reduced the budget severely in response to decreased revenues from the state, which is being rocked by a recession of historic proportions.

Now county administrators are preparing for another round of cuts. All told, reductions of $82.5 million in the county’s $571.3-million general fund have been recommended. There can be no doubt that service will be affected seriously in all areas.

The county budget, of course, cannot be made final until after the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson come to an agreement on the state budget. That all-encompassing document is supposed to be in place by July 1, but that deadline has been missed many times in the past. There is understandably little appetite in the Capitol for implementing either the tax increases or deep cuts needed to balance the budget.

But even while legislators face off with Wilson, Orange County wisely has been working on putting its own budget in place by July 1. What’s more, less adjusting than usual should be required after the state budget is adopted. That’s partly because there is more predictability in this year’s revenues to counties because of a change adopted last year. Called “realignment,” the change identifies certain sources of funding to counties for state-mandated health and welfare programs. In addition, revenues to local courts have stabilized because of an agreement with the state.

That means Orange County budget planners have been better able to predict--however grimly--just how far this year’s revenues will fall short of what is needed to carry out county programs. Further cuts may be needed in August because of decisions made in Sacramento. But most of the needed reductions already should be in place.

Like counties around California, Orange County had been hoping for an economic upsurge by the time of this year’s budget deliberations. But no recovery is in sight. Hard choices have to be made--the sooner the better.