The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved
its fiscal year 2012, $2.1 billion general fund budget today,
cutting $219.6 million that mostly accounts for 309 eliminated
county positions.
Many might argue this is toughest of times for Americans, said District 1 Supervisor Mike Wassermann, and by the look of million dollar deficits at the county level, billions for California and trillions for the United States – Wasserman is probably spot-on.
The Santa Clara County board of supervisors unanimously passed a $4.1 billion budget that closed a $219.6 million deficit gap Friday, cutting jobs, reducing wages for the county’s highest-paid employees and shrinking the budget of community-based organizations by 25 percent.
Wasserman, who represents citizens from Los Gatos to Gilroy and is in his first year of his first term on the board, said he was pleased with the cooperation and hard work of county staff and his colleagues on the board.
“The decision we’ve made is representative of representing the communities,” Wasserman said. “And we made them in the best interest of the community.” The county did not touch funding from its 3 percent reserve and designed a budget that isn’t dependent on one-time federal or state funds.
The budget for fiscal year 2012, cuts 309 net county positions. The county employs about 15,000 people.
Most positions which were eliminated – and still relies on $75 million in labor concessions – are in the youth corrections unit and at Valley Medical Center, the biggest expense for Santa Clara County. The board did approve the creation of 246 jobs that aim to consolidate work, leaving 69 people who will face layoffs July 1.
Wasserman said the county’s choice to not use one-time funds to save positions or balance department budgets was a wise decision that “doesn’t kick that proverbial can down the road. It defers making tough choices. It defers making more cuts,” he said from the dais Friday.
The county waits, as other local governments, for a decision at the Capitol. Last week a state budget was approved by lawmakers, then vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown who said the $26 billion state budget deficit can be remedied with more widespread spending cuts and a tax extension.
“What will happen next is anybody’s guess at this point,” said County Executive Jeffrey Smith. “We’re hoping for a turnaround in the economy. We used the one-time funds and ran out of those.” This budget, Smith said, is “promising for the future” because it reverts to not using stimulus funding that has created some instability since the money isn’t guaranteed year to year. One-time funding has been apportioned for projects and not swallowed by the general fund, in the county’s case.
The 2012 fiscal year budget was passed following months of public hearings, study sessions and meetings among committees to address the proposed cuts of each county department: health and hospital, finance and government operations, social services, public safety and justice, and house, land-use, environment and transportation.
“As difficult as some of these decisions were, they were necessary and will allow the county to better prepare for the tough times ahead related to the continuing state budget deadlock,” said board President Dave Cortese.
Also, wages and benefits for 150 department heads and top management will be reduced by 6 percent; new hires will be offered a salary 10 percent lower than the current entry wage.
On Wednesday, during the budget hearing of the Office of the Sheriff’s budget, the board of supervisors voted unanimously 5-0 to save the rural crime unit, meaning two deputies’ positions were not eliminates as previously proposed – one in South County and another who patrols the Mount Hamilton area.
The possible elimination of the rural crime deputies hit closest to Morgan Hill and Gilroy among the 309 positions that have been cut, with the largest portion of county jobs located at Valley Medical Center in San Jose.
‘Critical services maintained’ county says
Over the course of the budget process, the board maintained that it wanted to restore several critical safety net and public safety services that were proposed for elimination. However, community-based organization did face a 25 percent cut.
The board voted to restore more than $1.5 million in funding that was proposed for elimination earlier in the year. Many of the restorations approved at the hearings were in the area of public safety and justice.Â
Two positions were added to the Cold Case Unit and one position to the Conviction Integrity Unit of the District Attorney’s office to bring closure to outstanding cases and investigate claims of wrongful conviction. Eight positions were restored for fiscal year 2012 in the Probation Recovery Services Unit to address those prisoners to be released from state prisons that become the responsibility of the county under realignment by the state government.
Four deputies were restored to the Rural Crimes Unit and Unincorporated Patrol to assure the continuation of the current level of service to the unincorporated areas of the county.
Pharmacy coverage at Valley Health Center in Milpitas and Sunnyvale were restored. Also, the board added three temporary positions to address a large backlog in the Tax Collector’s Office, that has almost 23,000 negative supplemental reassessments and 3,000 assessment appeals “as a result of the downturn in the real estate market,” said District 1 Supervisor Mike Wasserman.
“We owe it to taxpayers to reconcile the tax bills and get them any refunds due in a timely manner. This will save the county interest payments and taxpayers will have use of their funds sooner.”
A total of 555 positions were deleted and 246 new positions were created for a net reduction of 309 positions. Four-hundred-and-twelve existing employees will be affected in some way.
Within that number, 275 will be transferred to other positions in the county with no loss in pay, but could be doing very different work for a different department; and 69 employees will be given layoff notices, though retain county jobs, but in positions that are below their current pay grade, in some cases significantly below.Â
