The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors made more than $370
million in annual cuts when they approved the budget in June, but
it wasn’t enough.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors made more than $370 million in annual cuts when they approved the budget in June, but it wasn’t enough.
County staff is now in the process of analyzing what combination of additional cuts and funding sources can make up for another possible $112 million in lost revenue resulting from the state budget approved by the legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month.
That’s money that would have been used by the county to serve local people who depend on services such as CalWorks and other welfare programs, health care for lower-income and disabled citizens, court security, domestic violence victims and AIDS patients.
“You’re talking about people with mental health issues who won’t have service. Alcohol and drug (treatment programs), child support – they’re not going to get service,” Supervisor Don Gage said.
While the county has followed a rule of thumb of cutting where the state cuts since the current recession began, Gage said many of the programs previously targeted by the state have been “scraped to the bone.” The county might have to rely heavily on one-time funds such as reserves to meet minimum service levels, but even that might not be enough.
“You’ll have people who will just die,” Gage said.
The supervisors are waiting to make a final determination on the cuts because the board and staff do not feel the state budget is “set in stone,” County Budget Director Leslie Crowell said. Possible legal action threatened by some state legislators, for example, could avert nearly $500 million in cuts penciled in by the governor after the assembly approved the initial $86-billion budget.
“We do need to rebalance the budget for (2009-2010), but not right away,” Crowell said.
Based on the staff analysis of the worst-case scenario, some services provided through local departments and providers could no longer be available to some residents who depend on them, according to county officials who presented a report at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Up to a $42 million hit to the county’s general fund would mostly affect health and social programs. Those cuts are the result of the state’s decision to borrow up to $1.9 billion statewide in property tax revenues, with a pledge to repay the counties by 2013.
Potential service reductions include an elimination of AIDS/HIV programs, children being kicked out of the Healthy Families health insurance program for lower-income residents, and reduced eligibility for some disabled people who are currently served by In-Home Supportive Services.
The county’s share of the costs to serve Medi-Cal clients could go up, and eligibility requirements for CalWorks could be tightened by reducing the number of months clients could use that program’s employment services.
An unknown detail about the possible cuts is the number of clients in these programs who would lose coverage or assistance, Crowell said.
In 2008, the county served about 119,000 families with social safety net programs administered by the Social Services Agency, and about 2,380 of those were in South County, according to SSA statistics. The total caseload for the agency and its providers has risen as the economy has worsened.
Some of these programs are mandatory and the additional state cuts could be at least partially addressed with an $88 million reserve fund set aside solely to deal with anticipated state reductions. The remainder would be dealt with by reducing the level of service available to residents.
All four domestic violence shelters could lose up to $800,000 in annual funding – the facilities’ entire operating budgets. In South County, Community Solutions runs a shelter for battered women and their children that served about 150 victims in 2008.
Community Solutions President Erin O’Brien said despite the loss of state funding that has kept the shelter running, the organization will seek other means to fund the service whose need is growing.
“We are absolutely committed to keeping our shelter open, but how we do that, I don’t know,” said O’Brien last week. “A lot of people are working on a lot of fixes, but thinking about where these women are going to go (if the shelter closes), that’s what keeps me up at night.”
The closure of county courthouses one day a month equates to a $1.18 million furlough for security staff contracted from the sheriff’s office because the state normally reimburses the county for those costs. In the coming weeks, staff will determine if the sheriff’s office can continue to pay security officers for other law enforcement service.
Other programs that are locally administered but traditionally state funded could continue if the county can pony up the cash to pay for them.
One is the Williamson Act, a state law that provided tax rebates for landowners who choose not to build on their property and has benefited the agriculture industry. The state has always reimbursed counties for the loss in property tax revenues from the act, but that won’t happen this year and Santa Clara County will lose $305,000 as property owners in the program will still get their contractually obligated tax break.
The state budget could even move prison inmates to county jails by re-classifying some felony offenses as misdemeanors, Crowell said. Such a situation could lead to overcrowding in the county jail, or the facility’s inability to house all the inmates who are booked.
This and other state spending decisions reflect the state government’s effort to pass its budget burdens onto counties and cities, Crowell said.
“We’re very disappointed, to say the least, in the fact the state continues to push its responsibilities onto local governments, because it does hurt the clients we serve and the poor in California,” Crowell said.
When the county passed its fiscal year 2009-2010 $4-billion budget in June, it balanced a $370 million deficit by using one-time funds and cutting services. Many of the programs targeted for reductions in the state budget were significantly reduced locally in June, including the closure of the San Martin Public Health office.
