An effort to delay the approval of the budget of the County Budget of San Diego in 2025-2026 failed the Council of Supervisors – which means that county leaders will have to develop a spending plan by June 30 in the midst of uncertainty as to the way in which the state budget deficit and federal financing reductions will have an impact on the county programs.
The supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe, which had proposed the delay, urged his colleagues to approve a provisional budget and to clarify state and federal expenses before finalizing a budget by fall.
“We have no idea what is happening to us, we really don’t know,” she said at Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s a very unprecedented period.”
The proposal – initially planned for a Tuesday vote before being hit by a crowded program – was not lower than the support it needed during a 2-1 vote.
County exercise begins on July 1 and the supervisor council normally approves a budget by June 30. But the law of the State allows the board of directors to approve a provisional budget as long as an official budget is adopted no later than October 2.
Such a delay would also give anyone who is elected the District 1 supervisor a chance to weigh on budgetary priorities.
The old supervisor Nora Vargas canceled the headquarters at the start of this year, choosing not to serve a second term due to “personal security and security reasons”.
After a special election on Tuesday, the mayor of Chula Vista, John McCann, and the mayor of Imperial Beach, Paloma Aguirre, are heading for a July runoff. The two candidates said last week that they prefer to weigh on the budget after the elections.
“I made the voice in my opposition to the making of this decision without representation of the district 1, or of the district 1 having a seat at the table,” said Aguirre last Thursday.
In a statement last week, she said that the approval of a budget before the district had a supervisor risked the communities in the district 1 “short-circuit” and suggested that the county adopts an interim budget for the moment and votes on the budget of the whole year once the new supervisor has tightened.
McCann said that if he was elected, he would like to have the opportunity to participate in the budgetary decision. But he thinks that the biggest problem is how the new supervisor will manage the county’s several million dollar deficit.
“I would hope I could participate,” he said last week. “But the real debate does not consist in delaying the budgetary vote. This is what the District 1 supervisor will do to repair the structural deficit of 140 million dollars in the county.”
Montgomery Steppe’s proposal needed three voices to pass. At the meeting on Wednesday, she and the Terra Lawson-Remer supervisor voted in favor, while the supervisor Joel Anderson opposed. The Jim Desmond supervisor, which is in Washington, DC, did not attend.
At a press conference on Monday, Anderson argued that any delay could lead to discounts of the services and perhaps harm the Credit Credit.
Joan Bracci, financial director of the county, said on Wednesday that the adoption of Montgomery Steppe’s proposal would have no impact on the services and would have no effect on the county’s credit rating as long as supervisors adopt a budget before October 2.
“If you look at the wording of the government code, it almost seems that (the two-step process) is the default value and the only step is something you can do if you don’t want or need to do the two-step process,” she said.
In a statement after the vote, Montgomery Steppe described it as “fiscally irresponsible” to approve a budget without a complete understanding of the way in which the reductions in food assistance, Medi-Cal and other programs financed by the federal government could affect the services in San Diegans at low income.
Federal aid programs could have an impact on almost a third of the budget of County $ 8.5 billion, which was already facing a deficit of $ 138.5 million.
“As elected officials, we are often responsible for making difficult decisions, and that was one of those moments,” she said. “Approaching a budget without fully understanding the budgetary landscape or anticipating potential cuts is not a cautious approach.”
The declaration notes that several California counties, including Los Angeles, are following a two -step budgetary process.
The Maura Fox writer contributed to this report.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
