February 4, 2005

Supervisors anticipate severe cuts in county services

By County Supervisor Jim Beall
Special to the Times

Because 40 percent of the county’s general fund comes from the state, Santa Clara County is looking carefully at the effect the governor’s proposed budget will have on our programs. An initial analysis indicates we will have to make severe cuts in many services and reduce the number of employees who provide those services.

In addition, there are major reductions to education and transportation, which, if enacted, will impact families throughout the county. The governor is proposing to once again suspend Proposition 42, which was supposed to increase funding for roads and highways. A reduction in promised money for schools will make it even more difficult to prepare students for jobs in Silicon Valley.

County services that will be affected most directly include the Cal Works program, which provides job skills for unemployed workers receiving public assistance. The governor also proposes cutting the wages of the workers who assist elderly and disabled clients to stay in their homes and avoid nursing homes and institutions. The present wage rate is approximately $10 an hour, and he is suggesting that the pay be capped at the minimum wage of $6.75 an hour. Counties believe that this would make it extremely difficult to recruit home-helpers.

A long-standing problem for counties has been the issue of unfunded mandates. These are programs that the state requires but for which it does not provide funding.

Santa Clara County is currently owed more than $69.3 million for these mandates and the governor’s plan is to pay this over a period of five years, but other deferrals, such as the transportation money from Proposition 42, would be paid back over 15 years.

Many organizational changes in health delivery and corrections are included in the budget document but details will probably not be available until the governor offers his revised budget in May.