Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors opens a two-day budget workshop Tuesday, May 1 to look at projected 13-14 percent reductions in revenue across the board and an expected $3.8 million deficit for the coming fiscal year.
Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster reported from a recent meeting of the California State Association of Counties last week, saying “every county is in dire need now for assistance” because of AB109, which reorganized state prisoner holdings and pushed more types of prisoners into county jails.
Supervisor Brian Oneto said the problem stems from prisoner rights: “Prisoners have more rights than anybody now and if you ask me that’s incorrect.” Forster said the Association of Counties talked about a bond vote for jails. Supervisor John Plasse said the bond vote would just be “taxpayers paying again.”
Supervisor Ted Novelli said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has proposed a change. Forster said CDCR has proposed to start bringing out-of-state inmates back to the state and also proposed a closure of the Juvenile Justice Department, what’s left of it.
County Administrative Office Chuck Iley on May 10 said the Legislature awaits the Governor’s May budget revision, and Iley crafted the budget with restored 40-hour work weeks for all employees, who voted last year to work 36-hour weeks. Combined with “triple-flip” funds lost, the county budget deficit is expected to be $3.8 million. He projected a $1.7 million carryover to the next budget, down from $4.7 million carried over into the current fiscal year.
Only law enforcement voted to work 40-hour weeks last year and Iley made them meet the previous year amounts to keep total costs to the county the same. The same happened with the District Attorney’s office.
Sheriff Martin Ryan in an e-mail to Supervisor Ted Novelli, a member of Amador Fire Protection Authority board of directors, told the AFPA board that he would be asking for a revisit to the breakdown of Proposition 172 funding, which in Amador County goes to law enforcement, fire fighting and emergency response.
Iley said this year the Sheriff’s Department will have to cut $766,000, and anticipates another $400,000 in lost revenue, for $1.1 million in total cuts. The D.A. faces $273,000 in cuts, and Probation faces $192,000.
Iley said Supervisors could consider cuts from other general fund contributions to other departments. Iley is making a comparative analysis of Amador County departments with other counties, which he said gets tricky because different counties use different practices and serve different functions or use different methods to calculate overhead.
Supervisors are expected to discuss those differences during the budget workshop and allow department heads to explain. The workshop starts after adjournment of the Board of Equalization meeting, which starts at 9 a.m.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
