(County Budget approved)…The balanced budget was approved Tuesday morning.
The final budget for 2019-2020 comes in at $497.7 million, an increase of $29.7 million over the 2018-19 fiscal year budget. The General Fund Budget came in at $218.2 million. The new General Fund budget originally had an almost $2 million deficit. The County used a carryover from the last budget and transferred funds around to balance the General fund. The Budget in total supports a workforce of 2,372 funded positions. Positions funded through the General Fund is 1,267, a decrease of 17 positions from last fiscal year. By law, the balanced spending plan must be submitted to Sacramento by October 2nd. District One Supervisors Jesus Escobar said he voted in favor of the budget to comply with the law, but he did not like having to manipulate funds in order to balance the budget. He said that was robbing from Peter to pay Paul. Escobar suggested the county begin outlining a five year budget plan that will generate enough revenue to balance the General Fund. Chairman of the Board, District 4 Supervisor Ryan Kelley agreed with Escobar’s suggestion.