County Board Deadlocks on Budget

Los Angeles County supervisors deadlocked Tuesday over next year’s proposed spending plan, which underscores the difficulties in meeting demands to improve public safety and other county services while bolstering the financially strapped health department.

County officials said the 2-2 vote was the first time in more than 15 years that the board had failed to tentatively approve the budget a day after its announcement by fiscal managers.

None of the supervisors disputed the centerpiece of the $18.5-billion proposal -- a plan to provide enough money to reopen county jails closed over the last three years. The closures have led to the release of about 200,000 inmates before completion of their sentences.

The budget calls for spending an extra $565 million next year, thanks to an expected jump in property taxes and lower than expected costs for workers’ compensation.

But Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the proposal did not set aside enough money for public safety, which has suffered deep cuts. He said that about 450 sheriff’s deputies retire or leave the department each year.

Antonovich was joined in opposition by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, but for different reasons.

A day earlier, Yaroslavsky had decried the spending plan’s failure to address the looming $435-million deficit that is expected to hit the Department of Health Services within two years.

Supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Don Knabe voted for the budget. The board is expected to vote on the budget again next week when Supervisor Gloria Molina is present.

The budget must win tentative approval from a majority of supervisors before public hearings on its contents can begin.