The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted July 21 to fight in court a “fiscally reckless and morally bankrupt” plan by Sacramento lawmakers to close the state’s budget gap with billions of dollars seized from California’s local governments.

The board, acting unanimously on a sharply worded motion by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe, accused state political leaders of concocting a scheme that, if adopted, would potentially rob L.A. County next year of more than $313 million in redevelopment project funds and $109 million in gas taxes used to construct and maintain the region’s highways. In just 10 years, those figures are projected to soar into the billions.

“State spending and significant tax giveaways, among other things, have brought us to the precipice,” Yaroslavsky and Knabe said in their motion. “Transferring local funds into the state treasury does nothing to address these policy failures. Taking advantage of counties that serve the elderly, ill, mentally ill, disabled and the impoverished is wrong on its face, and it is illegal.”

The board directed the county counsel to file a legal challenge against the state should it try to divert transportation money or deprive the county of redevelopment funds through unlawful legislative sleights-of-hand.

Specifically, under the budget proposal, the life of a redevelopment agency could be extended for up to 40 years without a legally required finding of blight in a community. In this way, the state believes it could hold onto huge tax sums that would otherwise flow to local jurisdictions. The cost of this scheme to Los Angeles County over that period of time would be an estimated $10 billion—money that could be paying for vital public safety and human services.

The state budget plan, the product of months of partisan posturing and wrangling, is designed to close a $26.3 billion deficit that has pushed California to the brink of insolvency. The state’s bond rating is now the worst in the U.S.

Beyond seeking an infusion of revenue from local governments, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature’s four top leaders have proposed unprecedented cuts in government services, including in health and education. Tens of thousands of seniors and children would be severely affected if the budget plan is passed in the coming days by the Senate and Assembly. What’s more, the Capitol’s “Big Five” have proposed major cuts in the state prison system, potentially clearing the way for the early release of nearly 30,000 inmates.

To read the Yaroslavsky/Knabe motion, click here.

For an L.A. County overview of the state’s tentative budget proposal, click here.