Deliberations on the next year’s budget will continue Wednesday after Santa Barbara County supervisors talked about the proposed spending plan at Monday’s meeting.
The recommended budget of $1.07 billion assumed 4.5 percent growth in assessed property value next year over the current year, but updated information from the County Clerk, Recorder and Assessor’s Office shows an estimated growth in the range of 5.5 percent, county staff said Monday.
That change would add another $1.5 million to the general fund revenues, and the Board of Supervisors could spend some of that money toward restoring proposed cuts, said the memo from County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato and budget director Jeff Frapwell.
“Given that we will have continued budget gaps over the next several years, with particularly large gaps in Social Services and public safety departments, continued spending will deepen our problem next year,” the memo said.
The 5.5 percent growth would be significantly above the 4.3-percent increase that the county had last year, said Joe Holland, the County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor.
Santa Barbara County is facing increasing salary and benefit costs, high pension costs and unfunded pension liabilities. Supervisors are considering staffing and program cuts to several departments, including 71 layoffs in the Department of Social Services and 28 other employees demoted.
During Monday’s meeting, Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf said the social safety net was being “decimated in this budget,” while other supervisors also lamented the lack of funding contributed toward deferred maintenance for county infrastructure.
Sheriff Bill Brown told supervisors that with the proposed budget, it would be “nearly impossible” to keep operating the Santa Maria Jail and, without it open, North County deputies would lose a lot of hours driving people in custody down to the Santa Barbara Main Jail.
School resource deputies may also be cut at Cabrillo High School, Santa Ynez High School and San Marcos High School.
He asked for additional funding to restore some of the proposed cuts, as did many other department heads, and supervisors will consider those requests along the recommended budget which can be found here.
The Board of Supervisors will start budget deliberations again on 9 a.m. Wednesday in the County Administration Building at 105 E. Anapamu St.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
