GILROY
– On Dec. 17, Santa Clara County officials called a press
conference to warn of severe budget shortfalls requiring anywhere
from $90 million to $175 million in cuts. Boy, were they wrong.
After looking further at slipping tax revenue and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget, the projected budget drop
from this fiscal year to the next have swollen to nearly $240
million
– roughly 7 percent of the county’s $3.3 billion total 2003-04
budget.
GILROY – On Dec. 17, Santa Clara County officials called a press conference to warn of severe budget shortfalls requiring anywhere from $90 million to $175 million in cuts. Boy, were they wrong.
After looking further at slipping tax revenue and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget, the projected budget drop from this fiscal year to the next have swollen to nearly $240 million – roughly 7 percent of the county’s $3.3 billion total 2003-04 budget.
Even the previous cutback figures meant mass layoffs and service cuts, but now top county officials may have to ask departments to cut even deeper for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Already in South County, the Probation Department will have to close one of its two boys’ ranches in Morgan Hill to meet its nearly $7.5 million target, according to Senior Management Analyst Ron Martz. It’s unsure whether the Harold Holden or William S. James ranch would close, Martz said, but the department will probably have to cut between 30 and 60 of its 830 staff members by July 1. That means juvenile offenders will have it tougher.
“These kids, if they’re really bad, will have to go to Juvenile Hall (the youth detention facility) or the California Youth Authority,” county Supervisor Don Gage, of Gilroy, said Friday.
In addition, South County almost assuredly will lose Social Services staff, prosecution and public defense lawyers and sheriff’s deputies, among other services.
“I’m trying not to cut any of the deputies down here (at the San Martin substation) because we’re already hurting as it is, but the sheriff’s is going to have to take hits,” Gage said.
The Sheriff’s Department is targeted for a $3.14 million cut.
“It’s pretty brutal,” Deputy District Attorney Stacey Rubino said soon after finding out that her department would lose 18 prosecutors, five criminal investigators and other support staff in a $4.5 million cut. Although Rubino has reason to believe her job is safe, she said, “I think we’re all worried about our fellow teammates.”
Meanwhile, people here may well feel the impacts of layoffs and service cuts at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and departments such as Correction, Mental Health and Public Health. Gage figured, for example, that county-funded counseling for alcohol and drug addiction would be phased out in the next few years.
“We’re not going to be able to provide the same level of service we have provided in the past,” Gage said. “We don’t have much choice.”
Why the shortfall? In December, County Executive Pete Kutras Jr. estimated that local sales and property tax revenue for the coming year would bring in $90 million less than for this year. Now, that deficit is estimated at $134 million.
Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget would reduce the county’s share by $104 million – far more than was feared from the governor’s canning of the controversial “car tax,” or vehicle license fee. In December, Kutras and several county supervisors threatened to sue the state because the car tax loss would have cost the county $85 million this year without “backfill” to repay the municipalities it benefited. In response, the governor agreed to the backfill, “but then he took it out of the other pocket,” according to Chief Deputy County Executive Gary Graves.
In his budget proposal in January, Schwarzenegger shifted more local property tax to schools, costing Santa Clara County $19 million more than car tax cut would have.
“It’s just another mechanism to take the money from us,” Graves said.
This pattern is likely to continue in the future, Gage predicted.
“The state’s going to keep coming after us,” Gage said. “Their problems are going to last for two to five years, and they use us to balance their budgets.”
The county already has cut $281 million in the past three years. Not only do the upcoming year’s projected cuts come close to that three-year figure, but now there’s much less fat to trim, officials say.
“We absorbed all out flexibility,” county Communication Director Gwendolyn Mitchell said Friday. “Now we are at the place where we are actually looking at laying off people.”
Some department heads, like District Attorney George Kennedy, are railing against the cutback targets.
Kennedy threatened to sue the Board of Supervisors if he has to cut nearly 10 percent of his 200 or so attorneys. In a Feb. 20 letter to Kutras and Graves, Kennedy wrote, “I cannot do these (cuts) and would resort to litigation against the Board.”
Kennedy said such cuts would fail legal mandates. He cited Article 13, Section 35 of the state Constitution, which says, “The protection of the public safety is the first responsibility of local government.”
“If George says it’s illegal, then we’ll look into the legality,” Gage said. “If we have to keep more district attorneys, then we’ll just have to take that amount out of somewhere else.”
Gage said many department supervisors and union reps have been in his office recently to complain about the cuts.
“My response is, ‘How do we pay you if we don’t have the money?’ ” Gage said. “I don’t think people realize the severity of this.”
Some departments hope to raise revenue to help cover the cuts. The Corrections Department faces a $7.6 million hit and will definitely have layoffs, spokesman Mark Cursi said, but administrators hope to avoid cutting corrections officers with a plan to house 150 state parolees at its Elmwood facility.
Instead of returning to prison, Cursi said, some state parolees who test positive for alcohol or drugs could detoxify for 30 days in a now-unoccupied minimum-security barracks at Elmwood men’s facility, which now holds about 2,100 inmates. The plan isn’t perfect, Cursi said – there may well be added costs involved – but it could allow Corrections to limit layoffs to administrative and support staff.
“Right now, I don’t think there will be any impact to the public,” Cursi said. “Will they still be able to visit inmates? Sure.”
