The Board of Supervisors approved
a tentative initial County budget for fiscal year 2007-8, which begins on July 1. It will
not finalize the budget until September, after the California Legislature and Governor
have finalized the state budget. It was a tight budget, with some alarming trends. Several
Department heads, including the Sheriff and District Attorney, were not pleased.
The good news is that Congress has given us a one year renewal of the
Secure Schools and Community Self-Determination Act funds. This is $9 million that goes to
backfill the County for the loss in timber receipts from the reduction in harvest on the
local National Forests. About $3.9 million of
this goes to the schools. About $3.9 million goes to the County Road Department. The rest
($ 1.5 million) is allocated by the Board of
Supervisors either (1) internally to offset Forest impacts on County services for search
and rescue, fire and other departmental expenses; or (2) to the Siskiyou Resource Advisory
Committee (RAC) to fund various Forest-related projects. The reauthorization means we are
able to run the Road Department at full capacity this next year, and with some reserves
and new revenue, probably the following year as well.
In previous columns, I have explained that the County is run with
various pots of money that are earmarked for specific services and no others. Basically,
Human Services, Public Health, Child Support Services and Behavioral Health and Road
Department are state and federally funded programs with separate earmarked pots of money.
The Sheriff, Jail, Probation – Juvenile Hall, District Attorney, Public Defender, County Council, Treasurer, Auditor, Clerk, Administrator, Planning, Building, Agriculture,
Library, Museum, Veterans Services, U.C. Extension are all lumped together into one pot
together called the “General Fund.” A large portion of Foster Care and In-Home
Support Services are paid from the General Fund. Other discretionary services such as County
Fire, the Economic Development Council, Visitor’s Bureau and Arts Council also are
paid from the General Fund.
The pot of money for the General Fund is currently allocated as
follows: 70% to public protection (Sheriff, D.A. etc.) ; 23% to general government
(Assessor, Planning, Treasurer, Auditor etc.) ; 4% to education (Library, U.C.E.); 2% to
public assistance (veterans, aid to indigents, etc.); less than 1% to public facilities
(airports); and less than 1% to cultural services (museum, parks.)
The problem is that revenue coming into the County General Fund is
not on an upward trend. This comes from loss of grants, shifts of funds to the schools and
take-aways such as the Governor’s current proposal to take away Williamson Act subvention funds totaling around $770,147 a year. We are currently receiving about the same in
revenues as we received in 2003. Actually, the six year average revenues from 2003-2008
are more than the revenues we are projected to get in 2008. During the same period of
time, most departments have increased expenses from 12-30-some per cent, with some
increasing substantially more. (For instance, over the past six years the Sheriff ‘s
budget increased 36%, the Jail 33%, the District Attorney 39% and the Public Defender 88%.
)
This year, all of the Secure Schools money not allocated to schools
or the Road Department was allocated internally to the General Fund. Unless something
changes, no money will go to the RAC. Even with this extra revenue, the initial budgets
submitted by the General Fund departments were $800,000 over revenues. Departments were
directed to make cuts in expenses proportionately to other departments and some equipment
purchases were denied.
It should be remembered that this is a preliminary budget. The
revenue picture may change by September. The alarming thing to consider is whether
Congress will provide a longer term reauthorization of the Secure Schools and Communities
Funds. The future may see a double whammy of decreases in both Road Department and General
Fund revenues. To increase revenues, the Board will likely review our current fee
schedules to see if increases are warranted. There is also a possibility of a decrease in
some services. Without a healthy and diverse economy, it is likely that Siskiyou County
will continue to struggle with chronic budgetary woes.
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