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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > YOLO COUNTY FACES $24 MILLION BUDGET DEFICIT
Article published - April 21, 2009
Credit: THE SACRAMENTO BEE
Yolo County faces $24 million budget deficit
By Loretta Kalb
Yolo County officials face an estimated $24 million spending gap in the next fiscal year and could lay off up to 111 workers, including 53 from the Sheriff-Coroner's Office, new staff reports show.
The reports outline deep cuts in services to close the gap and note that if labor groups agree to salary concessions, the number of layoffs could shrink. Even so, those facing cuts were alarmed.
"There will be a severe impact to the jail, to our response to assist other agencies, to our response to the public," Sheriff Ed Prieto said. "It's going to be devastating.
"When I look at these numbers … I don't understand the logic."
Under the plan that goes before Yolo County supervisors at 10 a.m. today, the sheriff-coroner budget would be cut by $5.6 million, or 19 percent, for the budget cycle that starts July 1.
Other proposed changes – such as excluding undocumented immigrants from eligibility in a county health care reimbursement program for the poor – would save $1.5 million next fiscal year.
That proposal goes before supervisors May 5.
That cut would shift health care costs to community-based health care providers such as CommuniCare Health Centers in Yolo County.
"If the proposals are adopted, they will mean some really drastic changes," said Robin Affrime, chief executive officer for CommuniCare. She said undocumented residents constitute about half of those served in the county's indigent care program. "We will continue to provide the service, but we won't be reimbursed."
Supervisors who talked to The Bee about the cuts were cautious.
"We've never faced a situation this serious, and we're all struggling with how to respond to it in as thoughtful a way as we can," said county Supervisor Mike McGowan, a 16-year board veteran.
"The bottom line is Yolo County will be providing less service in practically every area under our authority."
Supervisor Duane Chamberlain said he opposed such deep cuts to law enforcement.
"I'd like to preserve public safety, the sheriff and district attorney," Chamberlain said. "That means cutting other departments more. The parks department should take a hit before the district attorney and sheriff's office."
Sacramento County faces a much larger, $187 million, gap in the budget that supports general government operations such as law enforcement and health and human services. But that deficit represents only 8.5 percent of the county general fund.
By comparison, Yolo County's projected shortfall is a gaping 36 percent of its general fund budget. That's a chasm that Assistant County Administrator Pat Leary calls a "crisis of unprecedented proportions."
"This is drastic," Leary said, adding that the proposal before the board is not a formal recommendation. But it is intended to elicit supervisors' response "to see if we're headed in the right direction."
For now, the county administrator's office proposes to close the budget gap with a combination of moves. Among them:
• Work force cuts: A combined 199 full-time positions would be eliminated, 88 of them vacant. Those would include 42 posts cut in the Department of Employment and Social Services, 18 of them occupied. Another 27 positions would be slashed in the District Attorney's Office, 13 of them currently filled.
• Employee concessions: Leary said if labor groups agreed to salary concessions and other measures such as furloughs, the county could save about $5 million in salary costs.
• Early retirements: Eighty-five of the county's 1,521 employees have opted to take advantage of a two-year service credit offered through the California Public Employees' Retirement System and retire early. Those positions would remain vacant for two years, saving $1.1 million in the 2009-10 general fund budget.
• Juvenile Detention beds: Supervisors will be asked to approve higher charges to Tuolumne County to lease beds in the county's Juvenile Detention Facility, increasing 2009-10 revenue by $43,800.
• Cash-flow relief: The board is being asked to authorize issuance of up to $15 million in short-term revenue bonds to fund ongoing county operations.
Prieto said he was surprised at the severe level of cuts being recommended for his department, which has 90 sworn officers.
The scope of cuts, he said, would mean drastic operational changes, including closing the Leinberger Detention Facility in Woodland, releasing 140 inmates and relying solely on the Monroe Detention Center, which houses about 300 inmates. About 20 to 25 correctional officers' jobs would be eliminated.
In addition, he said, the department would have to lay off 22 deputies, leaving 14 for street patrols; slash the detective force; and probably eliminate staffing for the drug task force and make cuts in the gang task force.
"These are not scare tactics," Prieto said, calling them "reality."
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