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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 02.04.10 edition.
County
budget in trouble
By J.P. Crumrine, Editor
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors discussed and debated the
county’s 2010-11 budget at their session last week. Already, Executive
Officer Bill Luna is preparing the board to make decisions that
eliminates an estimated $71 million deficit.
While there is strong disagreement among the supervisors over whether
to employ early retirements to mitigate the number of potential
layoffs, possibly approaching 1,600 people, the board did concur with
Luna’s recommendation to cease using reserves to balance the budget.
The new budget will project a minimum 6-percent reserve. Over the past
two years, the county has used more than $220 million from a $360
million reserve to fund its operating costs.
The county’s 2010-11 discretionary income is projected to fall more
than $100 million, about 15 percent, compared to just one year ago,
2008-09.
Exacerbating the supervisors’ problem is the extent to protect public
safety budgets at the expense of other agencies. Supplementing special
public safety sales tax funds (Proposition 172 funds) complicates the
equation. As sales tax revenue continues to fall, the Proposition 172
losses place additional demands on the county’s general funds.
The majority of the board seems inclined to adopt the option of the
third consecutive early retirement program. The county is committed to
leave unfilled the positions of employees who accept early retirement.
The more the county must rely on lay offs the more likely the employees
will be younger people with families.
“I’m asking my colleagues to consider the reality of what we’re dealing
with,” supervisor John Tavaglione began. “We have to cut back we have
no choice, but to cut back, the county organization has to downsize to
reasonable manageable level based on revenues projected to come in.”
However, Supervisors Bob Buster (2nd District) and Jeff Stone (3rd
District) were concerned that this option creates higher costs for
future boards and increases the difficulty of rehiring people and
returning to a growth condition.
Stone asked Ron Komers, the county personnel executive, what is the
long-term pension obligation from early retirements and whether that is
less than the costs of laying off employees necessary for the same
current year budget savings.
“We’re retrenching, will we re-energize? We’ve downsized 5 percent and
contemplating another 10 percent. That’s a huge amount,” Buster stated.
“Loading more costs on the future, this is what’s occurring here.”
Both supervisors were concerned about the county’s rising pension debt
and how that would have to be paid in the future in lieu of funds
available for operations.
Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff wrote the board before its
meeting. He reported that the Sheriff’s budget was coming into balance,
with the exception of funding new positions for the Larry Smith
Detention Center.
No specific decisions were made last week and the board asked Luna to
bring more information to the Feb. 9 meeting when he presents the
2009-10 mid-year budget review.
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