In the big overall picture, the
County budget can be seen as falling into two categories: (1) services that the County
performs under State and federal programs; and (2) services that the County performs under
the General Fund.
The first category includes Behavioral (mental) Health services
reimbursed mostly through Medi-Cal billing; and Public Health and Human Services
(Cal-Works, welfare) programs performed under contracts with the State. (Last fall, the
voters also passed a special tax on the wealthy - Proposition 63, which will be used to
provide additional mental health services.)
The County Road Department also operates on funding allocated from
the State and the federal Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. This
Act, which may sunset in 2006, currently provides about $3,870,000 earmarked for roads in
the county. The State has been using some of other intended road funding to balance its
budgets.
It is interesting to note that, although the overall population of Siskiyou
County has increased only slightly during this period, this first large category of
services has seen the greatest growth in County employees since 1984 to date. For
instance, Behavioral Health has gone from 12 employees in 1984 to 72 this year; Public
Health from 15 to 41 employees; Human Services from 50 to 100 current employees. The Road
Department has declined slightly from 97 employees to 92.
The second category is the General Fund and includes services such as
the auditing, records recording, property assessment, tax collector, elections, county
clerk; library, planning, building department, the jail, the juvenile hall, probation, the
District Attorney and the Sheriff’s Departments. With a few exceptions, most of these
departments have stayed the same or decreased in staffing levels. Comparisons in staff by
department from 1984 to present are: recording 5-5; Assessor 26-21; tax collection 9-8;
elections 2-2; county clerk 7-3; library 20-14; planning 10-10; building 7-8. Increases in
employees over this period of time were seen in the law enforcement branch with: jail
14-49; juvenile hall 9-12; probation 11-20; D.A. 8-25; and Sheriff 37-72 (including grant
funded positions.) The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors has always considered public
safety to be a top priority.
The County has begun work on its budget for 2006-7. Last year, the
Board of Supervisors used $1.8 million in reserves to balance the budget. Reserve funds
will not be there to help balance the budget for this coming year. Retirement costs are
expected to increase an estimated $190,000; employee health insurance $202,000; worker’s
compensation insurance $75,000; and property liability and other insurance about $133,000.
It is also anticipated that the State legislature will not fund the rural crime bill,
creating a loss of revenue of about $250,000 to the general Fund. What this all means is
that the General Fund is expected to have increased expenses of about $2,650,000 in next
year’s budget.
On the revenue side, remember when the Governor rescinded the
increase in the Vehicle License Fee (VLF)? Not so good for the counties. The VLF started
as a personal property tax that went to the counties. When the State was flush with money,
it decided to refund some of the State surplus by cutting that tax to the car owner and
“backfilling” the counties for their resultant loss in revenue. When the State
went into deficit, the VLF tax went back up to its normal level and the State discontinued
the county revenue backfill.
When Governor Schwarzenegger came into office, he reduced the VLF to
former levels, but the county took a good sized hit in revenues. An agreement was made to
allow the State to defer its backfill payment to the counties for several years. Next
budget year, Siskiyou County, along with others, will be able to take a loan against that
deferred VLF gap funding by the State. This will bring an additional $850,000 in revenue
to the County coffers for next year’s budget, dropping the expected overall budget
deficit to around $1,800,000.
Passage of Proposition 1A by the voters last fall will give
significant future protection to the counties against raids by the State on local
revenues.
Siskiyou County must live within a balanced budget, so it must reduce
expenditures to meet the expected deficit. An immediate freeze has gone into effect on the
filling of all current and future vacant General Fund employment positions. Hiring
requests will be reviewed at final budget in the fall. Department Heads are now challenged
with finding cuts to meet the shortfall for presentation at the June preliminary budget
hearings. Some may be able to manage current budgets to provide a surplus carryover to
help meet that deficit. Our departments have worked hard as a team to meet these
challenges. |
