Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve a preliminary 2012-2013 budget of $67 million dollars, with a reduction of about 21 full-time equivalent jobs, as two weeks remain before the state budget must be approved.
Supervisors continue discussion with Service Employees International Union, and await potential funding restoration from the governor’s budget and legislation. More than 100 people attended; many wearing purple shirts in support of the SEIU. Union business agent Steve Bristow asked people to stand who were there in support of SEIU employees and a majority stood up. Bristow said he “had been called this morning to come back to the table.
Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said negotiations are ongoing with SEIU which could potentially play a role in the county’s final budget, but it was a closed session item they could not comment about. Basic Aid funding could be restored in the governor’s budget, giving the county $1.1 million. Forster said Assemblywoman Alyson Huber’s AB 1191 will be discussed Wednesday, June 13. It would restore triple flip funds in a five-year funding plan.
The county expected to end the year spending $2.1 million dollars more than it took in. County Administrative Officer Chuck Iley said 10% cuts agreed to by SEIU employees over three years do not make a 30% total, as Bristow has said. Iley said: “It’s still 10%. That’s an empirical fact.”
Iley said the “so called surplus carryover” has been as big as $10 million, and in this coming budget year it will be $2.7 million. Iley said revenue in the current year is down $1.2 million below expenditures. Iley said “you can spin it any way you want” but “the budget is down to where we need to make some significant cuts.”
Supervisor Brian Oneto said they could either make cuts or hit a brick wall and it would be very ugly as far as services received. Iley said the budget has a smaller carryover, and a $500,000 contingency, which is not the 3% supervisors wanted, but it is accessible without resolution, and reserves are above that.
Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano said reserves help with major unknown projects. Supervisor John Plasse said the 24% reserve is carried forward for county operating cash and when the county is “burning through it at a million-and-a-half dollars a week, it doesn’t last very long.”
Supervisor Ted Novelli said AB109, reorganization of jails, might also mean the need to build a county prison. Forster said Triple-Flip funds and Basic Aid money are unknown, and with the “state of the state I’m not sure they are able to restore those.” He said the county is also prosecuting and defending two murder cases, with six defendants so there are several unfinished issues looming ahead.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
