In annual shooting on public spending in the sprawling bureaucracy of the County San Diego, public security and social services prevented planning of land use, the environment and fixed assets of $ 180 million in a budget project published on Thursday.
The expenditure plan of $ 8.6 billion represents an increase of $ 85 million compared to the current budget, while erasing an annoying deficit which was estimated at $ 138 million earlier this year.
But the balanced plan takes a big bite of investment in the county infrastructure, cutting the budget of fixed assets of approximately two thirds, or $ 90 million. The expenses recommended in this space would be reduced to just over $ 45 million.
It also sculpts nearly $ 70 million in the finance department and $ 20 million from the Land Use and Environment Agency – programs that represent barely one eighth of all annual expenses, or just over $ 1.1 billion.
The proposed budget, which is likely to be modified as public discussions are progressing, comes when the supervisors’ council remains politically divided since the surprise resignation at the start of this year of the old Nora Vargas supervisor.
The board of directors has been involved on a certain number of ideological questions in recent months between its republican supervisors, Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond, and his Democrats, Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe.
This week, Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe proposed to recalibrate the Comté’s reserve policy to release some $ 355 million now in the bank as part of a wider fund of rainy days.
Anderson and Desmond have indicated that they would not support such restructuring. A fifth supervisor will be sworn in this summer, after a runoff of July 1 between the mayor of Chula Vista, John McCann and the mayor of Imperial Beach, Paloma Aguirre, who is arguing to succeed Vargas.
The recommended budget landed while the County of San Diego and other local government agencies continue to fight with claws and cuts to subsidies and other funding controlled by the Trump administration.
For example, earlier this year, the county was informed that he lost $ 40 million in public health funding.
“Although it understands difficult recommendations, this budget provides a way to create a certain certainty in the event of uncertainty and creates a framework that provides tax stability in the future,” wrote administrative director Ebony Shelton in her budgetary message.
The County public security group behaved better, with regard to spending.
The agency that supports the Sheriff’s Office, the Probation Service, the District Prosecutor’s Office and other services would obtain $ 149 million more than it has obtained in the current financial year.
While the public security group would represent $ 2.9 billion in annual spending – more than a third of the overall budget of the county – the staff in the various agencies it supports themselves from 15 full -time positions. However, it would use just over 8,000 people.
The largest corner of county budget expenses would remain the health and social services agency.
The recommended budget requires social services expenses to more than $ 3.5 billion – almost 41% of all county spending. The 2025-26 budget draft increases the current health and social services investment by $ 65 million.
But while the expenses offered reached a historic summit at $ 8.6 billion, the recommended budget cut 190 jobs in the overall county, around 1%.
Public health and social services have the weight of these cuts, with 168 positions eliminated by the largest department in the county. The full number of full -time positions of health and social services would be 8,075.
The land and environment use group – which oversees planning, parks, public works and libraries, among other services – would lose nine full -time positions.
He would enter the next financial year with 2,152 workers, just over 10% of the 20,000 county employees and more. Many of the 190 lost jobs were obtained by attrition and eliminating certain vacant posts, officials said.
Crystal Irving, who directs the largest union that represents the county workers, said that the loss of proposed jobs would harm critical services such as behavioral health, environmental protection and homeless.
“The uncertainty of the federal budget and the state means that it rains,” said local section 221 of the International Union of Service Employees. “County workers on the fronts call on the supervisors’ council to take measures and exploit our funds from rainy days, our reserves, so that we can protect and invest strategically in services at this critical moment.”
The County of San Diego provides services to each of its 3.3 million residents, including public health, parks and libraries. It also provides protection against police and fires through the Sheriff office and a regional fire authority.
In their press release linked to the recommended budget, county officials stressed some of the most urgent problems – and how they plan to attack them.
The recommended budget includes more than $ 840 million for social services such as food assistance, cash assistance and Medi-Cal which benefit more than a million people. It puts aside $ 29 million to improve prisons and $ 9 million to renovate the miners’ detention center in eastern Mesa.
More than $ 130 million is designated to help people with housing, including the development of affordable and supporting housing projects. And $ 15 million is intended for a regional homeless program.
“Our county budget remains focused on making San Diego a place where people can prosper – where residents feel supported and where the county workforce is empowered to serve with heart, objective and integrity,” said Shelton, the chief administrator of the county.
“This reflects our common commitment to ensure that this region continues to be an ideal place to live, work and play for all those who call it at home,” she added.
Community groups and public members are invited to comment on the proposed expenditure plan. An open day is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, May 22 at the County Operations Center, and a virtual event at 5:30 p.m. on May 28 is accessible online.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
