PORT HUENEME : City Budget Deficit Grows to $500,000

Port Hueneme’s budget shortfall has grown to nearly $500,000 as a result of the state budget passed earlier this month, the city’s finance director said.

About $80,000 in property taxes that normally would go to the city will be reallocated to schools under the state’s budget, Finance Director Jim Hanks told the City Council last week. The reduction comes on top of a $400,000 shortfall previously projected for the city’s 1992-93 budget, he said.

Hanks said before the meeting that the council will probably dip into reserves to make up the entire shortfall this year.

But it will be unable to do so next year, when another deficit is forecast, he said.

“We will be looking in the next six to seven months to see where we can make cuts in programs or services,” Hanks said.

This year’s general fund budget totals $6.7 million, he said.

Another $375,000 in Redevelopment Agency money, separate from general fund revenues, also will be withheld, he said.

A city proposal to build a recreational vehicle resort on 10 acres of municipal beachfront property would increase annual revenues by $400,000, Hanks said.

But that plan has been hotly contested by residents of neighboring condominiums, environmentalists and some state agencies concerned about the park’s effect on local nesting grounds for endangered birds.