On Wednesday, a line in the speech of the Terra Lawson-Remer supervisor obtained a standing ovation from the mayor of San Diego, Todd Gloria.
She described the county’s budgetary policy as “too conservative” in the midst of a budgetary deficit of $ 138 million, probably federal reductions and a recent one of $ 40 million at the County Public Health Agency.
“We have more than $ 100 million in surplus reserves, just sitting in an account, above what is recommended by best tax practices,” she said.
“So, today, I call an immediate reform of the reserve policy of our county,” she told a particularly enthusiastic applause of her audience.
For years, the County of San Diego has been good to hide money for a rainy day to protect itself against economic uncertainties – too good, according to criticism.
Gloria has argued this point. In his speech on the state of the city in January, he urged the county – the main health and social service provider of the region – to do more to combat serious mental and dependence illness.
“When will they intervene to provide the necessary services to put an end to this crisis?” He said.
Gloria told San Diego Union-Tribune that he “had been moved to stand up and to be delighted” of Lawson-Remer’s proposal to release the reserves “because, as she knows, I continually pushed our County to do more.”
“I appreciate his courage to finally exploit the vast reserve accounts of the county to do more for our common voters,” he added, “in particular those who live with dependence and mental illness in our streets.”
According to budgetary documents, the county has around $ 700 million classified as reservations and a balance of funds of almost $ 3 billion.
About $ 1.1 billion of the $ 3 billion is limited, reserved for specific programs. The rest of the balance of the fund – without reservations – $ 1.2 billion is described as “affected”, although the board of directors can vote to redirect this money if more urgent needs arise.
Lawson-Remer thinks it can release $ 100 million with the support of two other supervisors.
The board of directors generally of five people is currently a member of the One, leaving him divided with two Democrats – Lawson -Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe – and two Republicans, Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson. Democrat Nora Vargas left for this year, choosing not to serve a second term for “personal security and security reasons”.
After a special election of April 8, the mayor of Chula Vista, John McCann and the mayor of Imperial Beach, Paloma Aguirre, will participate in July runoff. Aguirre is a democrat, McCann a republican.
Aguirre told the Union-Tribune that she thought that the county should spend more of his reserves.
“It is irresponsible to hoard this large part of the money of our taxpayers when our communities desperately need the county to intensify homelessness, infrastructure and the wastewater crisis,” she said.
McCann feels very differently.
“The county faces a financial train wreck with an annual deficit of $ 138 million,” he said. “It is irresponsible to withdraw more than $ 100 million from the county rainfall to spend on petiticians’ petitics projects.”
Anderson, also a republican, did not respond to an email asking for Lawson-Remer’s proposal, but Desmond said he did not support it.
“In recent years, the county’s workforce has increased by 2,500 new positions, and several new departments have been created-departments that we simply cannot afford,” he said. “Like any family tightening its belt during difficult times, the government must curb spending and stop funding programs that do not serve our residents directly, not spend more money.”
The Montgomery Steppe office did not respond to an email asking for his response to Lawson-Remer’s proposal, although the supervisor attended the Wednesday speech.
The county revised its reserve policy in the mid -1990s after climbing close bankruptcy, requiring “unforeseen catastrophic events”, a shaking size to cover income deficits and an additional cushion “to prepare for wider levels of economic uncertainty”.
In 2021, the supervisor council – with a democratic majority for the first time – voted to create a sub -comity responsible for exploring, among other things, a overhaul of the reserves policy. The subcommittee included Lawson-Remer, then-supervisor Nathan Fletcher and the county staff.
A letter from the board of directors calling for the creation of the subcommittee described the reserve policy as “based on conservative ideologies centered on risk aversion”.
“Such practices have led to a decrease in the role of the government providing services … (while maintaining) considerably massive reserve levels,” said the letter. “Over time, this approach has become more and more conservative, in some cases beyond the best budgetary practices.”
The work of the subcommittee stalled after Fletcher resigned from the Board of Directors in May 2023. A proposal for a new reserve policy was planned for a vote in February but was withdrawn from the agenda.
Current directives recommend that the county has at hand a minimum of two months of operating expenses of the general fund, an approach recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association.
County budgetary documents show that it is currently about $ 280 million less than the minimum recommended reserve of $ 973 million.
It is not clear if Lawson-Remer seeks to release certain billions of dollars which can be reassigned to a vote of the Board of Directors. His office refused to share more details last week, but said they would be available in the coming days.
Omar Pass, who directed the Board of Solutions of the Comté homeless before leaving for a job as deputy municipal director of San Jose, said that he supported the liberation of additional funding in the middle of the regional homeless crisis.
“One hundred million dollars do not change chump,” he said. “I mean, it’s raining, right?” If there is a background of rainy days to use, the region needs it. ”
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
