The County Budget - What You Need to Know

 By Supervisor Greg Cox

The following commentary appeared in the Ghetto Gazette in June 2004

The County of San Diego is preparing to discuss and approve an operating budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year. It is no surprise that the County will face some tough budget times largely due to the State’s fiscal crisis. Of great concern to the County is the impact of State funding for local government in two broad areas, property taxes and funding for critical services.

The Property Tax Dilemma
The property taxes that Californians pay are intended to fund the nuts and bolts of local government that is cities, counties and special districts, services to the public. Taxpayers expect street repairs, law enforcement response, parks and libraries when they pay their property taxes. Unfortunately, these critical local services have suffered for more than a decade as the state chose to “shift” local revenue to fund its own priorities. Based on the Governor’s January budget proposal, the County of San Diego stands to lose more than $55 million to the State in property taxes alone. Although the Governor’s May revision of his budget proposal appears to reduce that amount, and he has promised to limit of the state’s ability to shift property tax revenue in the future, the County will still feel the pain.

Funding for Critical County Services to Families
For better or worse, counties in California are permanently tied to the State. Unlike cities and special districts, California’s counties operate as divisions of the state to provide a variety of regional services, including collecting child support, providing welfare programs, operating child protective services, fighting delinquency, and seeing that the poor get health care and legal defense, among others. Since the State mandates that the County provide these services, on the State’s behalf, and should provide us with the necessary funding to carry out that mandate.

This year, the State budget simply does not fund these programs and services that are the safety net for our region, although the mandate to provide services is still in place. If the State’s final budget does not change from the Governor’s original proposal, the County stands to lose about $98 million that could fund services to people in need. So far, the impact of having this $98 million less than the County needs to provide services to the people of this region has forced the County to begin looking at budget cutbacks and workforce reduction to make up for that enormous budget hit.

Will the Budget Decisions Impact My Family?
Fortunately, the County of San Diego has prepared itself to serve the community during good times and bad. County services that residents count on like access to CalWORKS, Medi-Cal, In Home Support Services, job training, immunizations, HIV testing and other public health services, alcohol and drug treatment, child support collection, child and elder abuse protection and foster care will still be available. Residents may experience some delays, and a few longer lines, but the County will continue to support people in need.

The Next Step
Because the State Legislature has not yet voted to enact a final budget for the coming year, the precise impact to the County can only be estimated. We are doing our best to prepare for a “worst case scenario” with the hope that the State may provide some relief for local residents in their final budget.

The County’s budget process includes public hearings and deliberations that will take place in June. By law, the County must have a budget in place by July 1st, although if the usual practices are followed, the State will not have made a final decision by that time.

If you would like more information about the County budget, or would like to find out more about services that the County may offer to support you and your family please visit the County’s website at www.sdcounty.ca.gov or contact my office at (619) 531-5511 or (800) 852-7321.