Hollister and San Benito County will rely heavily on reserves to
curtail millions of dollars in shortfalls, as officials from both
governments expect little or no change to proposed budgets with
final approvals expected in early August.
Hollister is expected to approve its budget at Monday’s City
Council meeting, and San Benito County will hold budget hearings
next week to fine-tune its estimated $72.6 million in expenses.
Hollister and San Benito County will rely heavily on reserves to curtail millions of dollars in shortfalls, as officials from both governments expect little or no change to proposed budgets with final approvals expected in early August.
Hollister is expected to approve its budget at Monday’s City Council meeting, and San Benito County will hold budget hearings next week to fine-tune its estimated $72.6 million in expenses.
County officials don’t expect San Benito’s cuts to vastly affect residents this year. While Hollister leaders point to a deflated workforce – by about 20 employees – and a near halving of recreation programs as cuts that have already affected the public.
Regardless, officials say they’re satisfied with this year’s budgets, as most jurisdictions throughout California also are experiencing pains of a lagging economy. Though they remain mindful, and conservative, about the future.
San Benito will have to pull nearly $6 million in savings to balance its budget. And Hollister had to sell two downtown properties to its own Redevelopment Agency – one-time revenue raisers that won’t be available next year – and likely will pull $293,000 from its general fund reserve to break even, according to City Manager Clint Quilter.
Hollister is especially watching that general fund reserve, which has dipped every year since 1999 when it peaked at more than $15 million. If the council approves the budget as is, that rainy day fund would drop to about $6.6 million by next July, Quilter said.
“For tough times like this, I’m glad we have one,” Mayor Tony Bruscia said of the reserve. “We’ve got some tough choices ahead.”
Considering the city’s projected $4 million to $5 million hole going into budget planning this year, Councilman Robert Scattini said officials could not have cut any more funding.
Aside from selling the downtown fire station and old Fremont School, he said the council and department heads chipped away at a lot of the relatively smaller expenses – such as cutting out many employee-attended conferences – to drop Hollister’s deficit in 2004-05 to about $300,000.
“I don’t think you could do a better job than we did,” he said.
Bruscia, though, isn’t necessarily happy with this year’s budget, he said, because the city had to go through a gut-wrenching proposal to lay off 36 employees.
Although just one city employee ultimately was laid off, many workers on that layoff list left for other jobs or accepted early retirement.
And Bruscia pointed out that the council likely will continue to request concessions, such as foregoing benefit increases, from employee union groups.
“We’ve got some serious business to take care of and it’s no fun being the bad guy,” Bruscia said.
Scattini is in a unique position – being both a council member and a county employee as the elected marshal.
Under the current proposal from County Administrative Officer Dan Vrtis, Scattini’s Marshal’s Office would experience the biggest cut of any county department. Funding to his office would be slashed by two thirds – from $133,000 to $44,000, according to a proposed budget released in early June.
Scattini thinks he’ll have to come back to the Board of Supervisors during the fiscal year to request budget augmentations, he said. Residents who use his office, he said, will feel the cuts.
His office historically has overseen court security, but that duty might be handed over to the Sheriff’s Department next year. The county has not announced a decision on that. If that happens, Scattini’s primary job would be service of court-related documents and other legal process papers.
“I know it’s a tough job. You have to make some tough decisions,” Scattini said.
Otherwise, county leaders have managed to salvage other departments and programs without significant cuts.
A board committee’s recommendation to decrease funding to several programs caused an uproar from the local chapter of 4-H, which feared the long-standing program could be closed down completely. County officials, though, have said funding to 4-H will continue.
“I think we pared it down. It’s lean and mean,” Supervisor Reb Monaco said, adding the board will have to remain “fiscally very responsible” to endure the poor economy.
The Board of Supervisors will meet Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the board chambers at the County Administrative Building. The Hollister City Council will meet Monday at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
