L.A. County Starts Avalanche of Fee Hikes

Los Angeles County began the painful process of patching a $586-million hole in its $13-billion budget Thursday by adopting a series of new fees for services ranging from air ambulance rescues to admission to county nature trails.

The three measures approved will raise only about $1.2 million annually and affect just a fraction of the county’s residents. But the fee increases are the first of what officials say will be an avalanche of new or higher fees that will total at least $35 million a year and touch nearly every taxpayer.

In the wake of drastic cuts in state funding, county agencies providing routine government services such as fire protection, sewer service and mosquito abatement also began planning to increase fees and taxes this year.

Possible fee increases run the gamut--from the cost of birth certificates to the purchase of cemetery plots.

“I think you will see us scrape the bottom of the barrel as far as reason and law will permit,” said Richard B. Dixon, county chief administrative officer. “Government is going to increasingly be forced to charge something to those who use services or simply deny the service to everybody.”

The charges follow dire predictions of deep cuts in services and jobs that could cripple the county’s health network.

Officials estimate that the state funding cuts translate into a 10% across-the-board budget reduction in county spending and an estimated loss of 8,000 to 12,000 jobs--even with the fee increases.

For the city of Los Angeles, which is facing a loss of $53 million a year in state funds, City Council President John Ferraro urged support for a proposal to take up to $44 million from Harbor Department revenues to pay for vital city services.

At a City Hall news conference, Ferraro blasted Mayor Tom Bradley for opposing the proposal, designed to enable the city to tap into the port’s surplus of $174 million over the next two years and thereby avoid slashing police, fire and paramedic services.

“It gets right down to basics,” Ferraro said. “What do you want: a surplus sitting over in the Harbor Department treasury or safer streets for our people?”

Bradley declined to comment Thursday on the issue of port funds, but Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said a well-funded Harbor Department is essential to the city’s economic development and necessary to meet competition from the ports of Long Beach, Seattle, Oakland and Portland, Ore.

At the County Hall of Administration, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to begin charging $1,380 for a helicopter ride to the hospital, $3 to park at county wildlife areas and $23 for an annual pass for county nature centers.

“You don’t like it, I don’t like it, but we have to do it,” Supervisor Ed Edelman said to a group of nature lovers opposing the park fees. “We have no other choice.

“Certain people that use services are going to have to pay,” Edelman said. “The Legislature gave counties no choice. The only thing we can do is impose fees.”

“We knew (local government) would take this route,” said Joel Fox, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. “The state is just passing the buck down to the local level.”

Jay Curtis, president of the Los Angeles Taxpayers Assn., called the county action “jack-in-the-box tax policy.”

“You never know on what turn of the crank the tax will pop up,” Curtis said. “You never know on whom the burden will fall.”

Fox said the impact of the various fees, charges and tax assessments--ranging from a few cents to hundreds of dollars--will take its toll. “People will feel it. It will hurt,” Fox said. “It’s not a good time to raise taxes, no matter what you call them.”

Edelman defended the new charges, saying legislators have tied the county’s hands--cutting revenues but mandating that services be provided.

“Unlike the state,” Edelman said, “I believe we need a balanced approach” to resolving the budget shortfall that will include revenue hikes and budget cuts.

Still, some supervisors drew the line on new charges when faced with a proposal to increase golf fees at county-operated courses.

“I cannot go along with that,” Supervisor Deane Dana said about a $3 increase in greens fees. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a longtime booster of the county golf system, also opposed the measure.

Supervisors also tabled until Sept. 15 a proposal to raise admission prices and boat-launching fees for Castaic Lake, Bonelli Regional Park and the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.

Fee increases have been approved or are under consideration by a number of the county’s special districts, which provide such services as fire protection, mosquito abatement and sewage treatment.

Many special district increases probably will appear on property tax bills sent out in October. How hard taxpayers are hit will depend on where they live.

Statewide, 5,200 special districts lost $375 million.

“No district is going to escape having to increase fees or decrease services,” said Catherine Smith, deputy director of the California Special Districts Assn. But the effect of the state budget cuts on special districts varies, according to their ability to impose new or higher fees to offset property tax losses.

Under the new state budget accord, Los Angeles County’s Southeast Mosquito Abatement District will lose 35% of its property tax revenue when it is battling an explosion in the mosquito population because of heavy rains this year.

But the agency prepared for the budget cut by raising its annual charge that appears on property tax bills from $1.49 per parcel to $2.10, General Manager Frank Pelsue said. “There will be no reduction in services,” he said.

County Fire Chief Michael Freeman is considering asking the supervisors to raise a special property assessment from $13.99 on the average residential property to $41. The assessment applies to 600,000 developed parcels in 48 cities served by the county Fire Department.

County Sanitation Districts are collectively considering an increase of $6 to $7 a year in the average residential sewer service charge to make up for a $12-million to $14-million property tax loss out of a $300-million budget. The charge is now about $60 to $70 a year. The districts serve about 1 million homes in 79 cities outside of the city of Los Angeles.

But not all the news has been bad for government agencies. Jim McCandless, manager of the Lancaster Cemetery District, said he hopes to avoid any cost increase.

Los Angeles city officials plan to meet next week to redraft the city budget for the fifth time in two years because of a sinking economy and the state budget action.

Ferraro said he plans to ask the City Council today to instruct City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie to review whether some of the city’s 41 departments should be consolidated and to recommend a multi-year budget for the city.

“The motion aims to eliminate those services that are not essential,” Ferraro said. “My intention is to exempt the police and fire departments (from cuts), but that is up to the legislative body.”

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.

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