{"id":238279,"date":"2026-03-26T23:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/238279\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:34:24","slug":"fresno-county-we-need-state-relief-from-big-beautiful-bill-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/238279\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County: We Need State Relief from Big Beautiful Bill Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresno County leaders joined other California counties<\/a> in saying $1.9 billion from the state of California is needed this year to withstand anticipated cuts and higher cost burdens brought on by President Donald Trump\u2019s Big Beautiful Bill.<\/p>\n

In addition, the county is calling for $4.5 billion next year as those cuts and expenses could grow.<\/p>\n

Higher cost burdens for state and counties from social programs such as Medicaid and SNAP caused by Trump\u2019s landmark bill begin this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The county expects between $68 billion and $295 billion in added medical expenses as people losing Medi-Cal coverage turn to the county for medical care.<\/p>\n

Moreover, safety net programs such as Medi-Cal and CalFresh \u201care at immediate risk\u201d without additional funding, county officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFresno County is ground zero for the impacts of H.R. 1,\u201d said Paul Nerland, county administrative officer in the release. \u201cThe state must act now to provide sustainable funding, or counties will be forced into decisions that put critical services at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complicating the situation: the state is dealing with a budget deficit of at least $3 billion.<\/p>\n

Indigent Care an Unfunded Mandate: Bredefeld<\/p>\n

In a presentation to supervisors on March 17<\/a>, county directors said they expect to pay for indigent care for between 11,000 and 30,000 people, an expense the county has not covered for years, said Public Health Director Joe Prado.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the state fails to respond, our most vulnerable residents will pay the price,\u201d said Supervisor Luis Chavez. \u201cThese are individuals and families who depend on access to care and support services. This is not theoretical \u2014 this will have immediate and dire consequences in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

California law puts the cost of providing indigent care in the area on the county. Prado said that after the Affordable Care Act was passed, California stopped funding the program.<\/p>\n

Board of Supervisors Chair Garry Bredefeld called the rules an unfunded mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state has imposed mandates without providing the funding to meet them,\u201d Bredefeld said. \u201cThat approach is not sustainable. Counties cannot continue to shoulder the burden of unfunded state requirements while trying to maintain essential services for our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno County leaders joined other California counties in saying $1.9 billion from the state of California is needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-238279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}