HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Banks on Cable Fee, Reserve Fund

The city’s proposed budget for 1991-92 calls for spending more than the city expects in income.

“The budget is not balanced,” City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga said at a Monday night City Council meeting. As a result, Uberuaga said the budget calls for tapping $2.9 million in reserve funds.

The council is scheduled to vote on the spending plan at its June 17 meeting.

The budget proposal calls for overall spending of $189.5 million, of which the general fund would get about $100 million. The general fund is the discretionary part of the budget; other funds totaling about $89 million are special category, earmarked monies, such as the water fund, redevelopment funds, and debt-service funds.

The general fund is not growing as expected because of the nationwide recession, Uberuaga said. He added that he does not think the recession will end any time soon.

The budget for next year would have been more than $3.4 million in the red, rather than $2.9 million, had the City Council not adopted two fee increases at its Monday night meeting. The council passed a 5% fee on cable television users, estimated to come to about $1.45 per household, and increased the trash pickup fee from $9.85 to $10.89 a month.

Dave Sullivan, president of the residents’ group Huntington Beach Tomorrow, unsuccessfully urged the council to implement the cable TV fee for just one year. Sullivan said the economy is likely to pick up and that the fee would no longer be needed.

The cable TV money is to be used to prevent cuts in the police and fire department budgets.