County Budget Woes May Mean Layoffs

Ventura County government has pared back a projected budget shortfall but is facing more painful cuts--and the possibility of layoffs--in the coming fiscal year, county officials said Monday.

Department managers have been given cost-cutting targets intended to erase a $17.6-million budget shortfall looming in the 2002-03 budget. Earlier projections of a $22-million funding gap were lowered last month when the county Board of Supervisors cut 44 vacant positions.

But much more belt-tightening is needed before the budget is balanced, warned County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston in a report that will be presented to supervisors at their meeting today.

“Things continue to be uncertain and the economic news is not good,” Johnston said in an interview. “We have to do what we have to do to reach a balanced budget, and that is going to be hard for everybody.”

Public safety departments would be shielded from the deepest reductions under Johnston’s proposed adjustments. But for the first time in a decade, the sheriff, district attorney, public defender and probation chief would receive only a minimum increase, 2.1%, over current funding. In recent years, the agencies’ annual increases have ranged between 7% and 10%.

With the more modest hike, and falling revenue from a special sales tax funneled to public safety agencies, the Sheriff’s Department must cut $3 million from its budget. As a result, it will probably be forced to trim jobs and services, Sheriff Bob Brooks said.

Exactly where the cuts will be made is not certain, Brooks said. He is considering permanently deleting a handful of patrol and jail jobs or shuttering a women’s jail near Oak View. A prime consideration will be making the cuts in a way that does not affect the public, the sheriff said.

“We do believe it is a very real problem for the CEO and the board,” Brooks said. “So we are not contesting that we should be part of the solution.”

Other programs, already cut to the bone, may be more difficult to reduce further. Although the sprawling Health Care Agency would see a slight increase in overall revenue, contributions from the general fund are expected to fall by nearly 13%.

Building and maintenance budgets would also be slashed, and the county’s contingency fund trimmed to a bare minimum of $2 million, said Bert Bigler, chief deputy administrative officer, who helped prepare the budget report.

Layoffs remain a possibility, especially if the state Legislature decides to cut funding to counties as it struggles to close its own $12-billion budget hole, Bigler said.

“There are still a lot of vacant positions that could be closed,” Bigler said. “But it is certainly possible that there could be some layoffs.”

Overall, the county’s total revenues are expected to grow by 4.4% for the fiscal year that begins July 1. But the cost of running the 7,200-worker government is outstripping revenue growth, Johnston said.

That chronic problem has been masked in recent years by dipping into year-end reserves. But that practice is financially unsound because the reserves will eventually run out, Johnston said.

“Every year we’ve used the money left over at the end of the year, and it’s just shrunk and shrunk. Last year it was $10 million, and this year it’s down to just a couple of million dollars,” he said. “What we really need to do is live within our means.”