VISTA — City Council declared in no uncertain terms at its meeting Aug. 12 that it rejected any state proposal to seize city funds to balance the state budget. While such proposals are only in the rumor phase, several legislators have floated plans that would use local transportation and redevelopment funds in an attempt to meet a $15 to $17 billion shortfall in Sacramento.

The state has taken some $21 million since 1991 from local coffers without repayment. In 2004, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1A, a measure that allows the state to take local funds only in the case of an emergency. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency.

“A crisis to all those 479 cities that resoundingly supported 1A meant an earthquake ... a tsunami, something that was really going to affect all of us,” City Manager Rita Geldert said. “Their mismanagement of funds is not what we determine to be a crisis.”

Proposition 1A requires the state to pay back the borrowed funds with interest, but that would not address the short-term loss. According to Geldert, some $2.6 million in the city’s general fund is at risk. In addition, Geldert said, the state might also take $750,000 from the redevelopment fund, which is not protected by 1A and would not have to be repaid.

“$2.6 million — that’s a huge hole,” City Management Analyst Tony Winney said after the meeting. “Even if they decide to pay that with interest, where do we come up with the $2.6 million to replace it, especially on such short notice?”

“Those redevelopment dollars are an economic engine to vitalize the community as well as look to the future of growth for the state as a whole,” Geldert said.

The proclamation represents one of the few recourses the city has to influence state legislators.

“When we need money for additional things, we reach out to the community,” Winney said after the meeting, pointing out that citizens got to vote on fundraising measures like 2006’s Proposition L, which paid for the new City Hall. “With the state, we really don’t have a say on what they decide to do.”

The office of Martin Garrick, Vista’s representative in the state assembly, had little comfort for the city, however.

“His position is we need to do what we need to do to balance the budget without raising taxes,” Garrick’s chief of staff Mike Zimmerman said. “Basically, the counties are sitting on a ton of money.”

Zimmerman did say that some proposals suggested using tobacco tax revenue, and he added that all options were on the table — so long as the proposal did not include tax increases. True to form, Garrick and his fellow Republicans voted down an 11th hour budget proposal Aug. 16 because it contained tax increases.

Geldert said she hoped that whatever solution the state comes up with — and it is now two months overdue in agreeing on a budget — the legislature will look to fix the structural issues causing the deficit rather than plugging the gaps with borrowing.

“We have to balance our budget and we balance it and we make sure we provide the best possible service with the dollars we have,” Geldert said. “When those dollars don’t come in, we tighten our belts and we reduce service levels. We expect the state to do the same thing.”