Proposed County Budget Includes 66 New Jobs

By Bay City News Service

Alameda County's economic outlook is "brighter" than it was a year ago but cuts in federal and state funding mean that it still faces "an extremely challenging and uncertain fiscal environment," County Administrator Susan Muranishi said.

In presenting her proposed $2.7 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, Muranishi told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the county's unemployment rate has dropped to 7 percent, which is below national and state levels, and sales tax and property tax revenues are up.

But she said state and federal funding provide the money for about half of the county's budget and both of those levels of government are cutting back their funding.

The proposed budget represents an increase of $58 million, or 2.2 percent, over the current budget.

At the state level, Gov. Jerry Brown wants to transfer about $300 million statewide away from county health and prevention programs in the next fiscal year and $900 million and $1.3 billion, respectively, in the following two years, Muranishi said.

She said Brown's proposal "raises significant concerns" about the ongoing cost to counties of providing services to those not covered by an expansion in a state-administered Medi-Cal expansion program.

In Alameda County alone, an estimated 100,000 people may still be uninsured and require county indigent health care services, Muranishi said.

The county also expects to lose about $7 million in federal funding because of sequestration cuts and recently approved caps on discretionary spending, she said. Those cuts will hurt the county's senior and housing programs, Muranishi said.

On a more positive note, Muranishi said the county's $80 million funding gap is $8 million smaller than the gap in the current fiscal year that ends on June 30 and those two shortfalls are the only ones in the past five years that have been less than $100 million.

She said she plans to close the funding gap by making $48 million in one-time saving strategies such as efficiency efforts and $32 million in ongoing strategies such as cutbacks in programs and staffing.

Muranishi said much of the savings will come from the county's ongoing fiscal management reward system, which allows departments to carry over net savings each fiscal year to be used in subsequent years to balance the budget and help preserve important services.

Despite the efforts to close the funding gap, Muranishi is proposing a net increase of 66 county workers, a switch from the current year, in which 37 positions were eliminated by not filling vacancies. That would bring the county's workforce to a total of 9,162 employees.

For the first time in five years, Muranishi also is proposing cost of living increases for most county employees as well as for 260 community-based organizations who deliver services to county residents.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will hold public hearings on the budget on June 25, 26 and 27 and is scheduled to approve a budget on June 28.

Muranishi said she's "cautiously optimistic" about the next fiscal year but the county still will have to continue to "scrimp and save" because it likely will face another funding gap the following year.

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