Inflation pressures add nearly $27 million to San Benito County
budget, no reserves used
Think of all the work that goes into balancing a household
budget and times that by 56,000, the number of residents in San
Benito County, and that’s the challenge the County Administrative
Officer faces in proposing a new budget each year.
Inflation pressures add nearly $27 million to San Benito County budget, no reserves used
Think of all the work that goes into balancing a household budget and times that by 56,000, the number of residents in San Benito County, and that’s the challenge the County Administrative Officer faces in proposing a new budget each year.
The proposed budget for 2006-2007 is $107.7 million, up $26.7 million from the budget adopted during the last fiscal year. While the total number of dollars to be spent has increased, services will largely stay the same in the county.
A large chunk of that increase will be used for road repairs, which are funded by the state or federal governments. About $17.9 million will go to road improvements.
“Just doing business, costs go up every year but that doesn’t mean the dollars go up,” said Susan Thompson, county administrative officer. “Asphalt prices have gone crazy. All the gasoline we use for vehicles, utility costs – those don’t go down.”
The Board of Supervisors advised the CAO and her staff to maintain services this year and keep from creating new positions in the county.
“We are not recommending big cuts this year,” Thompson said. “We have revenue to support our programs, but we haven’t actually grown our budget.”
During the last fiscal year, the county was able to meet its expenses without dipping into reserve funds and Thompson said the county would not have to borrow from reserves in the coming fiscal year, either.
“In the past, before I came here [the county] did rely on reserves,” Thompson said. “It’s not necessary in the upcoming years and part of the reason is we have made some major and thorough analysis of our revenues.”
Thompson and her staff worked closely with Finance Director Joe Paul Gonzalez to make sure they had included all revenue sources in the budget. While much of the money comes from state or federal programs with the county kicking in a share of operating costs for such programs as mental health services, social work programs or public health, the county does collect its own revenue.
Property, sales and use taxes; licenses and franchises; fines and penalties; intergovernmental aid and charges for services all end up in the collective county pot. The county expects to collect nearly $23.6 million in revenue for the general fund.
The general fund pays for county operating costs, such as the cost of maintaining the Board of Supervisors, county assessor and treasurer, county counsel and other San Benito County services.
The county’s general fund received an unexpected boost this year of one-time revenue from the state of California.
“A couple years ago California [state] came up with a complex revenue shift called a triple flip,” Thompson said.
The county will receive $1.5 million from the state as part of the triple flip.
In recommending a budget for each department within the county, Thompson and her staff looked at several items. They received requested budgets from department heads, looked at prior year’s expenditures, looked at grant money and other sources of revenue.
“The Board gave us some specific guidelines in what we were looking for,” Thompson said.
Minor changes will still be made to the proposed budget. The County Administrative Office completed its proposed budget before the State of California released its budget, so cuts or increases from the state may change the county’s budget. The budget is being reviewed in public hearings that started Aug. 10 and continue through Aug. 14, a chance for residents to give their input on spending. The Board of Supervisors will also make changes to the budget before officially adopting it later in August.
The proposed budget can be viewed online at www.san-benito.ca.us/budget/ or at the County Administration building, 481 Fourth St., Hollister.
