COUNTYWIDE : County’s Financial Picture Brightens

The County Board of Supervisors has been girding for state funding cuts of $5.8 million this fiscal year, but a revised assessment of the reductions now comes to $4.7 million.

In addition, the county’s contingency fund is $841,700 richer than anticipated last summer. Last week, the supervisors allocated $391,700 of that money to restore juvenile offender services cut from the budget last summer. On Tuesday, they earmarked the remaining $450,000 to restore legal services for the poor. All the restored programs are mandated by the state.

The slightly brighter financial picture doesn’t mean the supervisors will back off from an earlier decision to increase revenues by charging cities a fee to book inmates into jail and assessing districts for property tax collection.

While those new funding sources will probably be challenged in court, any money that comes from them is “absolutely essential for the county to maintain current program services and also to consider any further restoration of state budget cuts,” Richard Wittenberg, chief administrative officer for the county, said in a report to supervisors.

The additional $841,700 in the contingency fund is primarily money for mental health services that has gone unspent. Using the money to restore the programs will leave the county’s general fund with about $1 million in contingency funds during the current fiscal year.

The $841,700 will pay for expert witnesses and investigative services for indigent defendants. It will also continue to fund a program aimed at rehabilitating first-time juvenile offenders and maintain another program that closely supervises juvenile offenders who have committed serious offenses after their release from work camps. It will also help pay for attorneys in juvenile cases and continue to provide shelter and counseling for youths.

The state funding cuts are not as severe as anticipated because funding of certain programs was increased, county officials said. Almost all of the new-found state money already has been pumped back into state-mandated mental health programs.