To explain the size of the budget problem that confronts and confounds them, legislative leaders tell people to envision this scenario:

California shuts down its entire state bureaucracy, giving pink slips to every park ranger, highway patrolman, DMV counter-clerk, prison guard, university professor and environmental regulator in the state.

As unrealistic as the scenario of shutting down all state operations may seem, there is also something else about it that doesn't add up: It wouldn't save nearly enough money to solve the state's $38 billion budget shortfall.

In fact, it would fall more than $10 billion short of the mark.

The reason? Nearly all of the $62 billion the state will spend next year -- under whatever budget is finally adopted -- will go not to state employees but to the millions of clients dependent upon state aid.

Those clients include 8,915 public schools, 477 cities and 58 counties. The schools alone account for more than 43 percent of state spending.

Also, there are the direct beneficiaries of state health and human services programs -- the 1.4 million women and children who receive welfare assistance through CalWorks; the 1.1 million aged, blind and disabled who receive state financial aid that enhances their Social Security benefits; the 6.3 million poor who receive health care through the state-subsidized Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs. Health and human services programs account for about 25 percent of state spending.

To balance the budget, then, will require millions of nicks and cuts to millions of clients -- from cities not filling vacancies in police departments, to school districts not repairing leaky faucets, to Medi-Cal patients losing coverage of previously included services such as dental care, to low-income working mothers giving up child-care subsidies, to the unemployed blind forgoing a $20-per-month cost-of-living increase.

How will the ultimate, now overdue resolution of the state's biggest-ever budget crisis affect individual Californians?

Some answers are already known. College tuition has gone up and will likely rise again, and university admissions will be curtailed. The amount motorists pay each year to register their cars has been tripled, effective Oct. 1, returning to the rate it was before a series of tax cuts kicked in beginning in 1998. Additional tax and fee increases may or may not be part of the solution.

The effects will trickle down to the local level, where cities and counties will adapt in myriad ways to the smaller checks they will be receiving from Sacramento.

Star reporters surveyed colleges, schools and local governments in search of ways the state budget crisis will hit home in Ventura County. Following is some of what they found:

Ventura County

Resource Management Agency -- Business owners and residents will find themselves dipping into their wallets for several new fees to help cover $400,000 of costs previously paid from the General Fund.

Any business that packages products based on weight, count, volume or area will pay an annual fee of $250. Grocery stores will be among those feeling the pinch. Any business that handles fewer than 10,000 units a year is exempt.

Some of the same businesses will also pay annual fees of $150 to $250 for operating bar scanner devices. Small businesses with less than 3,500 square feet will be exempted.

The cost of building permits is going up 5.7 percent, meaning a $1,000 permit fee will now cost $1,057. The money will go to the agency's Planning Division to help pay for the work on the county's General Plan.
Sheriff's Department -- Sheriff Bob Brooks might release prisoners early from jail under a variety of plans. The reason is overcrowding at the Main Jail in Ventura and Todd Road Jail. A domino effect is to blame. Brooks closed the Ojai Women's Detention Facility two weeks ago and transferred the 224 inmates to the Main Jail. To make room for them, he moved male inmates to the Todd Road facility.

Brooks is still considering closing the East Valley Jail in Thousand Oaks, which would force officers to make a two-hour round-trip commute to book prisoners at the Main Jail, and the 15-deputy crime-suppression unit, which assists cities with gang investigations.

Animal Regulation --Director Kathy Jenks closed a popular education program to save $76,000 as a way to avoid layoffs. The Big Dog programs visited schools, libraries and home owner associations and discussed dog care, bite avoidance, coyote issues, and reptiles and snakes. The program was also used for public agencies, such as police, fire and social service workers, who learned how to better cope with animals on the job.

Cities

Agoura Hills -- With an $18.7 million budget for 2003-04 recently approved by the Agoura Hills City Council, the city is bracing itself for cuts as deep as $350,000, said City Manager Dave Adams.

Adams said his staff has yet to identify specific cuts, although he would recommend the council first cut back special public safety programs such as the motorcycle officer patrols and teen parenting courses offered by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He said the city could also consider eliminating some of its recreation, teen and park programs.

Moorpark -- The city is not cutting any programs.

Johnny Ea, the city's budget and finance manager, said the city adopted a status-quo budget, which means no fee increases or cuts.

The only change to the budget was the city's contribution to the resource officer at Moorpark High School. Previously, the city contributed 60 percent while the school district paid for 40 percent of the position. The city now will pay 25 percent, with the remainder to come from a district grant.

Camarillo -- The city will not have to cut any services.

At the end of the fiscal year, the city will have $11.7 million in its General Fund reserves, a $3 million drop from the beginning of last year, said Finance Director Anita Lawrence.

"The key thing about this budget is that we were able to adopt it without cutting any services, without any new taxes, and on time while still maintaining a reserve that is still within the council's policy," Lawrence said.

Oxnard -- Oxnard has a strong reserve fund of $18 million, which it might have to dip into this year.

Councilman John Zaragoza said Oxnard could lose $2 million as a result of the state budget crisis. But, he said, it is too early to say what, if any, services would be cut. He said officials could decide not to fill job vacancies.

Oxnard also gets $11 million a year as its share of vehicle license tax funds, Councilman Dean Maulhardt said. Should the state decide to take that money from the cities, Oxnard could end up with across-the-board spending cuts in every city department, including police, fire and parks and recreation.

Port Hueneme -- Residents won't be seeing any cuts in services for the time being. The city adopted its two-year budget nearly two weeks ago, preferring to wait and see what happens when the state passes its budget before making any adjustments.

Tom Parker, Port Hueneme's finance director, estimated that if the state raids revenue from vehicle license fees and the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, the city could lose as much as $690,000. He said the city would then have to draw too much from its General Fund reserves.

Santa Paula/Fillmore -- Libraries will be open less in the small towns of Santa Paula and Fillmore.

The Blanchard Community Library in Santa Paula plans to cut four hours from its schedule, shutting down on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Librarian Daniel Robles said the library won't open until noon those days instead of 10 a.m. It will close at 8 p.m. both days as usual.

Fillmore's situation is more serious.

City Manager Roy Payne said library hours are expected to be reduced from 24 hours weekly to 16 to make up a $69,000 deficit. Depending on the level of state funding, that could drop to eight hours weekly or, in the worst case, no hours at all.

The Fillmore library is currently open a half-day Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and a full day on Wednesdays. It is closed Fridays and Sundays.

Payne said the Ventura County Library system, which operates the Fillmore library, asked for city money to make up the difference. But city officials could not comply because they already are dipping into reserves to the tune of $229,000 to offset a projected loss of car license fees, he said.

Payne also anticipates cutting spending on capital-improvement projects by $332,000, money that Payne said could have paid for street paving, park construction or part of the cost of a new sewer plant.

Simi Valley -- Street paving around Kuehner Drive and Los Angeles Avenue will be delayed for a year to save the city $720,000, and at Tapo Canyon Road between Walnut Street and Avenida Simi, saving $740,000.

In another cost-saving measure, the city has delayed for one year the upgrading of the city's two-way radio communication system. The city was into the second year of a three-year plan to upgrade the system.

Thousand Oaks -- If the state eliminates payments to cities to compensate for reductions in vehicle license fees, Thousand Oaks could lose up to $7 million, according to Deputy City Manager Scott Mitnick.

City officials have yet to decide what services or projects might be cut if state funding were reduced. Among the possible options are:

Hiring freeze: Leave 23 vacant positions open. Savings would total $1.6 million a year.

Residential street sweeping: Scale back monthly sweeping to every other month. Reduction would result in savings of up to $250,000 a year.

Library: Eliminate, scale back or delay plans to expand the Thousand Oaks Library. City would save $5.6 million.

Ventura -- Ventura City Manager Donna Landeros anticipates a $2 million loss in state funding. She said the city likely will see reductions in everything from public safety to community services.

Ventura police already have decided to reassign two school resource officers after Ventura Unified School District officials announced they'd lost $80,000 in state grants for the officers. The officers had patrolled the elementary and middle schools, Police Chief Mike Tracy said.

The loss leaves only three school resource officers to patrol the city's high schools this coming fiscal year.

Landeros said the $2 million cut will equate to the loss of 20 city staff positions. She said it's unknown how and when these positions would be cut.

City officials also expect the $2 million funding cut to be permanent.

Westlake Village -- Officials have yet to identify budget cuts they would make if state aid to the city were trimmed.

Assistant City Manager Audrey Brown said eliminating vehicle license fee payments to local governments would slice $106,800 off the Westlake budget, which is $4.9 million for 2003-04.

She said the city will examine its expenditures when it knows whether the state will reduce funding to cities.

Mayor Chris Mann said the city takes in $1 million more than it spends each year.

Schools

Higher education -- Public higher education is going to cost more in California. Fee increases have been proposed for the state's 108 community colleges, 23 California State University campuses and nine University of California campuses.

Ventura County Community College District officials are planning for a $7-per-unit fee increase, taking tuition from $11 per unit to $18 per unit. The fee will be collected when class registration begins in mid-July.
The final determination on the amount of the increase still must be determined by the state Legislature. If the fee is higher than $18, college district officials will try to collect the difference; if the final fee is lower than $18, students will get refunds.

Ventura County Community College students heading back to campus also will have fewer courses from which to choose, fewer full-time faculty to learn from and fewer classified employees to help them with financial aid, registration and other student services. Everything is being reduced 10 percent to 12 percent because of budget cuts.

California State University trustees will consider a 30 percent fee increase at their next meeting in mid-July. The increase would bring the annual tuition at CSU campuses, including CSU Channel Islands, to $2,046.

University of California regents are planning a 24 percent fee increase, taking tuition to $4,629 per year for undergraduates. UC officials warn that the fee increase could be higher depending on the outcome of the budget.
Conejo Valley Unified School District -- The district recently cut $2 million from this year's budget, bringing it to $139.4 million.

Among the cuts:

20 percent cut in supplies, saving $295,000 per year. The effect: Elementary school teachers won't be able to do as many hands-on projects that require supplies such as construction paper, glue and markers. High school teachers will have to cut back on labs that require chemicals, animals for dissection or other materials.

Increase student/teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grade from 19.25 to 1 to 19.5 to 1, saving $120,000 a year. The effect: more combination classes in which teachers teach two grades in one classroom.

Pay substitutes $10 less per day, saving $104,125 per year. The effect: will make it harder to find highly qualified substitutes.
Las Virgenes Unified School District -- The school board of the district, which covers Westlake Village, Agoura and Calabasas, has trimmed its budget by $2.8 million.

However, an education foundation has raised more than $1 million to compensate for some of those cuts, bringing the budget to $77.9 million. The foundation has sent letters to every household and business in the Las Virgenes area, outlining the cuts, some of which are listed below, and asking for donations.

Increase average class sizes in high school to save roughly $95,000 a year. The effect: Some classes will have more than 40 students.

Eliminate two night-time custodian positions, saving $60,000 a year. The effect: Classrooms won't be cleaned as often.

Don't fill two vacant counselor positions, saving $160,000 a year. The effect: One grade in both middle school and high school will not have counseling services.
Ojai Unified School District -- The district sliced 12.4 teaching positions next year.

This means the district must slightly increase its class sizes. District Superintendent Tim Baird said student/teacher ratios will be boosted by one student. That translates into class sizes that average around 32 students.

The district has tried to keep cuts away from classrooms. But, Baird said, the more the budget is tightened, the closer cuts come to kids. For instance, the district has done away with physical education specialists next year in grades 1 through 6. Regular classroom teachers will now be in charge of P.E.

The district sliced some administrative positions and classified positions such as secretaries.

Rio School District -- Mary Anne McCabe, assistant superintendent of business services, anticipates the state will provide less than half the money the district usually receives for instructional material. It has budgeted $30 for each student in attendance, a drop from the usual $50 the state allots. McCabe said one math or language textbook costs an average of $50, and the district would have to make up the difference.

The board has approved spending $600,000 on language arts and math textbooks for the next year and will have to dip into its reserve funds to cover the difference.

The district also will see cuts in its Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program and the Gifted and Talented Education Program (GATE).

Ventura Unified School District -- Parents in the district have formed a fund-raising group called Save our Schools. They are asking parents and businesses to donate money so the school district can avoid cutting programs and jobs that affect children.

On the cutting board is Reading Safety Net, which trains teachers to help struggling young readers. Peer Assistance Review is also on the list of cuts. The program lets tenured teachers mentor those new to the field.

Middle and high schools could go without a program called AVID, which targets students needing motivation for college and careers. A student Assistance Program that helps kids with issues ranging from divorce to drug abuse could go.

To keep all this and more, SOS hopes to raise $1.5 million