Amador County – County Administrative Officer Terri Daly advised on Tuesday that Supervisors take caution when making decisions that could exacerbate a county budget already stretched to the limit. “Just like any family or business budget, we don’t want our expenditures to be higher than our revenues,” said Daly. Overall, county revenues are down 40 percent while expenditures have risen 21 percent. She said the 2008-09 budget accounts for a $6 million deficit, most of which was carried over from last year. “We can’t spend it down because it would just come out of next year’s budget instead,” she said. Daly said this includes a $390,000 General Fund deficit. Supervisors are anticipating that December property taxes dues, which provide the bulk of general fund revenues, will provide better insight into how the fund will be affected.

Daly found personal costs to be the “most alarming” figure. She said 70 percent of county expenditures this year are due to personal costs, up from 40 percent in the 1990s. In an effort to curb this impact, she is in the process of implementing cost-saving strategies, including reducing use of county cars, voluntary furloughs and redeployment of resources. The Board is anticipating that actions the State takes to balance its $28 billion deficit will negatively impact counties. Given the proposals that have been made so far to balance the State budget, Daly anticipates a negative hit of between $2 million and $4 million to Amador County’s revenues. Daly suggested implementing mandatory furloughs and pay cuts across the board for management and middle management. She said a last-resort option would be deductions in workforce, but voiced her objection to the idea. “I have opposed any layoffs because of the devastating affect they would have on morale in this county,” she said, adding: “We would lose people we’ve recruited and trained who possibly will not be available in the future.” Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).