County’s New Budget Signals Recovery

Orange County officials sketched a rosy picture of the county’s financial condition Wednesday with a proposed $3.85-billion budget for the next fiscal year that would create jobs and boost funding for all major services.

By adding 570 employees, the budget would increase staff positions to a new high of 15,978 and, for the first time, exceed the staffing level which preceded the county’s historic 1994 bankruptcy. The proposed figures were adjusted to exclude court and fire employees, who are no longer county workers.

Much of the funding for the year beginning July 1 would go to health care and construction projects, such as the planned expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail.

“This is very positive because it’s right in line with the board’s financial plan,” said Stephen Dunivent, a budget manager in the chief executive’s office.

“We have money to set aside for projects that the board wants to do in the future, we increased contingency [funds] and we’re adding money for debt defeasance,” he said. “All of those are really positive things.”

The budget goes before county supervisors for approval at the June 29 board of supervisors meeting.

The proposal is 6% higher--about $233 million more--than the budget adopted last year for the fiscal year ending June 30. The county, though, has since collected more money to boost the current budget, reducing the proposed increase to 2%, or $70 million, over existing funding.

Under the proposal, health services would be allocated $77.9 million more than last year, the biggest projected funding increase. The largest expenditure, $696.8 million, would be for paying off debts, including the annual payments on the recovery plan for the 1994 bankruptcy.

About $18 million would be allocated to El Toro, with half funding airport planning and the other half paying for interim use costs. The county would establish a Children and Family First fund with $70 million of Proposition 10 tobacco tax money.

One major increase would give 114 new positions to family support collection efforts, paid from state and federal funds. A pending legislative bill would remove family support collection from counties and would create a new state agency to handle the work.

The county also would spend $32 million on the long-awaited South County courthouse and nearly $43 million on a regional communication system.

“The county budget is very healthy, and service levels are exceeding pre-bankruptcy levels,” said Mitch Tevlin, manager of budget development services.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Budget Grows

Orange County’s $3.85 billion budget for the new fiscal year envisions a $233 million increase over the initial budget for the current year, which ends June 30. Most of the additional money will go to health services and environmental resources. Debt service and public protection still will absorb the most spending.

*--*

Change 1999-2000 from budget 1998-99 (in millions) Public protection 17.7% $1.1 Health services 9.9 77.9 Community/social services 15.1 39.1 Environmental resources 16.6 71.4 General government/service 7.7 17.6 Capital improvements 5.7 37.3 Debt service 18.1 -29.1 Insurance/resources/misc. 9.2 17.7

*--*

Here’s how the county budget and work force have changed:

*--*

Budget (billions) Positions** 1992-93 $3.57 14,001 1993-94 3.63 14,910 1994-95 3.73 15,718 1995-96 3.45 13,835 1996-97 3.72 14,313 1997-98 3.82 14,922 1998-99 3.62 15,408 1999-00 3.85* 15,970

*--*

** Excluding courts and fire

* Proposed

Source: County of Orange