Santa Barbara County’s Department of Social Services has taken measures to address its deficit for the current fiscal year, but warned the Board of Supervisors that rising costs mean its financial future is bleak.

The DSS appeared before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to present revisions to its budgets and proposed eliminating 58 vacant positions as a cost-cutting measure.

The supervisors approved the budget and eliminated the vacant positions in a 4-1 vote.

In October, officials from the DSS told the board that it was facing a $7.4 million shortfall in its budget for the year. The department recommended eliminating unfilled positions and laying off a total of 65 employees by January.

Board supervisors declined to approve the layoffs and asked the department to talk to leaders from the Service Employees International Union about how they could lower costs without layoffs.

The DSS returned to the board on Tuesday with concessions from the labor unions, including a delay in performance-based raises. The tentative agreements need to be approved by union members but could save the department $250,000 over the next 12 months.

Officials also worked with the County Executive Officer’s Office and Human Resources to reassign current employees to new roles dedicated to looking for alternate funding opportunities.

The department also announced that its new plan would eliminate unfilled jobs but would not lay off employees.

Despite the reductions in spending, Rachel Lipman, assistant director of Administrative Services for DSS, informed the Board of Supervisors that the deficit was larger than it previously thought.

“Since last month’s hearing, we have updated our revenue and expenditure projections,” Lipman said. “Unfortunately, (we) are anticipating an additional half-million-dollar gap in the current year.”

She admitted that the next fiscal year looks “quite bleak.” The department faces a gap next year of $10 million, largely made up of salary costs, changes to the cost of CalFresh and the depletion of project funds granted to the county.

During questions from the board, Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson said he would like to focus on essential services when DSS begins planning its budget for next year.

“They’re ‘they’re nice to have, not have haves,’” Nelson said.

Nelson told Social Services Director Daniel Nielson that he was willing to use general funds to help DSS if non-essential services were cut back first.

“I’m willing to mine our general fund to a certain extent to things that are essential (…) like public safety, child welfare,” Nelson said. “But I need to have the confidence that everywhere else, those things (have) already been eliminated through that budget for my support there.”