Budget cutting difficult task for Inland Empire cities

Budget cutting is like the political equivalent of surgery without anesthesia.

However government officials try to slice their way out of deficits, there's going to be an outcry.

At the state level, it's impossible to balance the budget without cutting education, which is the where Sacramento spends most of the state's dollars.

At the local level, the big money is in law enforcement and firefighting, and any politicos trying to make cuts there had better prepare for a fight.

But Cal State San Bernardino professor Jim Mulvihill, who is also an observer of San Bernardino city government, said those who carry guns and fire hoses can't be immune from cuts.

"The best rule is to be across the board and equitable to all departments," he said. "In most cities, and San Bernardino is one of them, police and fire make up 70 percent of the budget."

"You can't help but look at public safety, unfortunately," he added.

San Bernardino, for example, has avoided any layoffs for sworn police and firefighters, but perhaps the biggest sign of how much economic woes have affected the city is that Police and Fire have not been completely spared.

Cuts to Police and Fire accompanied severe cuts to other services. Library funding was slashed and the city is relying upon fiscal juggling and private donations to fund city pools and the Center for Individual Development, which serves disabled individuals.

In a mid-year budget revision, the council voted in February to eliminate helicopter patrols in a move that followed the closure of the Police Department's community policing substations. Civilian department positions have also been eliminated.

Cuts affecting the Fire Department including a decision to axe eight firefighting positions that had been filled by firefighters working overtime shifts.

The result of that cut resulted in some engine companies that had been staffed by four firefighters - the number that's usually needed to enter a burning building without waiting for backup - to three crew members.

This is an election year for San Bernardino and at least one potential candidate is making the Fire Department cuts an election issue.

Council challenger Joe Arnett is running with the support of the city's fire union, which he wrested from incumbent Fred Shorett. Shorett won a Special Election in March and has campaigned on a pro-business platform.

Joel Kotkin, an author who studies urban issues, said public safety is a priority for local governments, and officials in cities that need to make budget cuts need to point their knives at public employees' retirement benefits.

"What they need to be cutting more than anything are the pensions. It's the pensions that will kill them, not the salaries," said Kotkin, who is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange.

"You can't have this class of people that are going to be retiring at 52 at 90 percent of their salaries," he added.