Supervisors Sharpening Ax for Budget Cuts

Faced with falling tax revenues and the continuing recession, several county supervisors said Friday that they are prepared to curtail services to keep county government from slipping into the red.

“We’ll cut, we’ll trim, we’ll do whatever we have to do, but I am not going to raise taxes,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez. “It’s serious, but at the same time, we are poised to make some early adjustments to deal with it.”

Vasquez and other board members said they are deeply concerned about projections indicating that the county’s general fund faces a shortfall of about $10 million just three months into the new fiscal year. And even more frustrating, county officials said, are indicators suggesting that health and welfare programs handed over to the county by the state in July are short by at least $5 million.

The state turned over those programs to the county as part of a so-called “realignment,” which included revenue from a sales-tax hike to pay for the services. But because sales-tax revenues are in a slump, the county does not have enough money to keep the health and welfare programs fully funded, and now it faces the possibility of cutting services or raising taxes to keep them operating.

“This is the nightmare that I had predicted,” Vasquez said. “That is not good policy. That is not good government.”

Other board members were equally frustrated, and a majority agreed that budget cuts will probably be needed in January to keep the county from depleting its $20-million emergency reserve fund.

“That’s a real, real possibility,” said Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who takes over as chairman of the five-member board next year and has spent several weeks studying county organizational issues with his staff. “I don’t want to alarm anybody, but I think it’s better to have this out there now than two days before D-day.”

A county hiring freeze already has been in effect for more than a year, and the supervisors eliminated more than 200 jobs during budget hearings three months ago. But officials conceded that even those steps may not have been enough to deal with a recession that has lingered longer than most economists’ predictions.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said that new construction projects may have to be canceled and some county facilities may have to shorten their hours to save money. Both suggestions were mentioned by Vasquez as well.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said the new projections, which she called “devastating,” could even force the supervisors to consider cutting salaries of union and non-union workers, who received increases of about 4% this year. Other members of the board, however, dismissed that notion, which would surely entangle the supervisors in a battle with the unions that represent the county’s 16,000 workers.

Stanton declined to comment on Wieder’s remarks directly but added: “I don’t like these knee-jerk kinds of suggestions.”

While the supervisors considered their options, county budget experts cautioned against moving too quickly.

“We don’t have any specific plans at the moment,” said Ronald S. Rubino, the county’s budget director. “I need two more months of data so that we don’t overreact.”

The county administrative office is preparing its midyear budget review for the supervisors and will send it to them next month. That report will not make specific recommendations for budget cuts, Rubino said.

Instead, the supervisors will get an update on the numbers in December and then take up the question of how to react to the revenue shortfall when the board meets in January.