REGION: Supervisors may end grants program

Economic woes could doom controversial funds

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Monday, November 17, 2008 5:08 PM PST ∞

In a sign of the troubled economic times, county supervisors are contemplating eliminating or reducing the controversial community projects program.

Under the program, each supervisor receives $2 million annually from the general fund to hand out as they see fit.

The money often is given to community organizations for the arts, children, business and educational programs. But some critics have called the program a "slush fund" through which supervisors dole out money to political friends.

At their meeting Tuesday to discuss the county's looming financial problems, supervisors are scheduled to vote on about $320,000 in grants from the program.

No decision has been made about whether to end the program, but Supervisor Greg Cox has hinted that it may be a way to free up much-needed money as tax revenue falls short.

"Because of the state’s economic crisis and the turmoil in our nation’s economy, we will be faced with difficult decisions about all our programs, including community projects," Cox said in a written statement on Monday.

"We will be looking at all spending and savings alternatives during the upcoming months as we work on the next budget," Cox wrote.

"Economic conditions have significantly declined, affecting revenue sources for the county in the current fiscal year as well as threatening funding levels for services in Fiscal Year 2009-10 and beyond," the county's chief administrative officer, Walt Ekard, wrote in a memo to the supervisors.

The budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year is $5.1 billion.

Last week, county officials said the county could lose $27.5 million in property tax revenue because of falling home prices. Don Steuer, the county's chief financial officer, said it's likely the county also will receive less sales tax revenue, which helps pay for law enforcement, than projected in the budget.

San Diego Tax Fighters Association Chairman Richard Rider, a critic of the community projects program, said the supervisors may be forced to cancel the funds out of necessity.

"Now they've got to start doing what we pay them to do, prioritize spending," Rider said.

Steve Erie, a UC San Diego political science professor, said talk of eliminating the grant program also may be politically motivated. He said getting rid of the program could be a way of disarming political foes, including would-be Democratic challengers emboldened by the recent election.

"You have to take away the low-hanging fruit of potential lines of attack for opponents," Erie said. "And the funds are the lowest of the low-hanging fruit."

The county grand jury investigated the grant program in 2004 because a confidential complaint accused the program of being a taxpayer-funded way for supervisors to buy political favor.

However, in its report, the grand jury said there was "no evidence to support misconduct or misuse of the funding allocations."

Supervisor Dianne Jacob said in a statement Monday that there were "too many budgetary unknowns" to say whether the program should be cancelled.

"For the time being, it's simply not prudent to speculate on the future of this or any other program," said Jacob, whose district includes much of East County and Ramona.

The $320,000 in grants to be decided at Tuesday's meeting includes $149,000 for Jacob's district, $104,000 for Supervisor Pam Slater-Price's district and $70,000 for Supervisor Bill Horn's district.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.