County budget chock full of cuts

The Board of Supervisors on Monday will open hearings on the proposed $5.45 billion budget for fiscal year 2017-18, which seeks across-the-board cuts from most Riverside County agencies, including a sizable chop to sheriff’s appropriations.

“It will be difficult for many departments to maintain existing service levels while absorbing reduced support,” county Chief Executive Officer George Johnson wrote in an introduction to the 850-page budget report. “I will not dwell on those, but we should all recognize that any such reductions are the logical consequence of making hard choices about our priorities.”

The overall proposed budget for 2017-18 is about 2 percent smaller than the one approved for the current fiscal year — $5.57 billion. As is the case every year, public safety components will consume about 40 percent of all general fund appropriations and an even larger share of discretionary income. However, the budget does not spare the agencies from cuts.

Johnson pointed out that the Executive Office, in line with the board’s wishes, extracted 6.5 percent across-the-board reductions throughout county government. The cuts were initially implemented in anticipation of a $42 million leap in costs tied to Gov. Jerry Brown’s original plan to shift the bulk of In-Home Supportive Services expenditures from the state to localities. However, the governor backed off of the idea, opting instead to impose a modest increase in counties’ cost-sharing.

According to the Executive Office, agency-by-agency cuts are still needed to build up the county’s depleted reserve pool, now about $180 million, and boost available revenue to sustain major capital improvement projects, the largest being the $333.35 million John Benoit Detention Center in Indio.

More than half of the 600,000-square-foot facility will be operational by next summer and will eventually provide space for more than 1,600 inmates, compared to only 353 in the existing Indio Jail.

The sheriff’s department is in the process of recruiting sworn and non-sworn personnel to fill hundreds of positions in the new correctional facility.

The department is seeking $712.3 million in appropriations in the next fiscal year, but Executive Office staff are recommending a $654.61 million budget for sheriff’s operations. It’s unclear how the disparity will be resolved, but Sheriff Stan Sniff is the first speaker in line at Monday’s hearing.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin will be right behind him, addressing cuts to that agency’s revenue going into 2017-18. The D.A.’s budget in the current fiscal year totaled $117.3 million. However, the Executive Office showed recommended appropriations of only $111.34 million in 2017-18, and that does not address an estimated $16 million structural shortfall still on the D.A.’s books.

The District Attorney’s Office is down to 679 full-time positions, compared to 703 last August, according to the budget report.

Fire Chief John Hawkins will also be appearing before the board, though most of his budget challenges were ironed out in April, when supervisors agreed to partially backfill the fire department’s spending gap, with a promise from Hawkins that internal adjustments would restore fiscal balance. The department has 1,050 full-time firefighters staffing 92 stations countywide.

As a result of pay hikes granted under a Cal Fire collective bargaining agreement and various service charges, the fire department’s total appropriations will swell in 2017-18 from $280 million to $312 million, according to figures.

Public Defender Steve Harmon argued during the 2016-17 budget hearings that a $2 million shortfall in his agency’s budget was untenable. Yet the Office of the Public Defender will have to absorb a $2.4 million cut under the Executive Office’s current spending plan, according to the report.

The Executive Office said discretionary income is expected to rise, from $730 million in the current fiscal year to $752 million in 2017-18, or about 3 percent.

According to officials, at the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, the county will employ just under 20,000 people — more than 6,000 below authorized levels. The budget recommends eliminating more than 1,000 vacant posts.

The fiscal blueprint that the board will approve by June 30 is a tentative budget plan, with a final budget slated for approval in mid-September.