\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n
The departments facing the biggest budgetary hit include\u00a0 public health, behavioral health and social services departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d punctured a nearly $300 million hole in Fresno County\u2019s budget for the coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n
The most immediate effects of the federal bill will lead to millions of dollars in losses to funding for social services like Medi-Cal and CalFresh \u2014 two of the country\u2019s premier social safety net programs for low-income residents.<\/p>\n
CalFresh will lose half of its usual federal funding contribution, a loss of about $7.5 million for Fresno County residents.<\/p>\n
The projected deficit \u2014 first shared with the board of supervisors<\/a> at its March 17 meeting \u2014 is still being refined, though early estimates range anywhere between about $69 and $295 million. The departments facing the biggest budgetary hit include\u00a0 public health, behavioral health and social services departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tania Pacheco-Werner is the executive director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State, a research organization that tracks the state of healthcare in the region. She said the magnitude of these cuts are by design.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese changes were done on purpose,\u201d Pacheco-Werner said. \u201cThis is not a mistake, and that\u2019s important for people to remember now when we\u2019re faced with the consequences of it.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u201d formally known as H.R. 1<\/a>, was signed into law last year. The bill largely slashed federal spending, a longtime goal for the newly elected conservative congressional majority, by either cutting funding for safety net programs, or by altering funding obligations for those programs to have states and counties pick up more of the bill \u2013 a policy change dubbed \u201cThe Big Shift<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n The impacts of the bill<\/a> may be felt as far out as 2034, as parts of the policy kick in on a staggered basis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A news release shared by Fresno County last week<\/a> announced that they, alongside a coalition of counties across the state, will continue to lobby state lawmakers to cover the expected budgetary shortfall caused by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n But with a volatile fiscal climate currently clouding both the federal and state governments, it\u2019s far from a guarantee that Fresno can remain insulated from a range of consequences that could overwhelm a laundry list of local services.<\/p>\n The federal cuts will affect pretty much everyone<\/p>\n The county highlighted, among other core community services, \u201celection administration\u201d as being at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n James Kus, the Fresno County Clerk\/Registrar of Voters told Fresnoland that \u201cthe public would experience these reductions through reduced County Voter Information Guides, reduced staffing at Vote Centers potentially causing much longer wait times, and slower election results tabulation and reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n Kus added that the elections office\u2019s budget is settled for the next two fiscal years, but impacts could start being felt between 2027 and 2029 \u2014 which coincides with the next presidential election.<\/p>\n County staff said at the March 17 meeting that they\u2019re already feeling the changes as work gets underway to craft the next budget.<\/p>\n And while it remains\u00a0 too early to tell how many recipients may be barred from CalFresh following new requirements, thousands are bracing for impact.<\/p>\n Sanja Bugay, director of the county\u2019s department of social services, said that data, and a clearer picture on the projected budget shortfall overall, might not come until the new requirements kick in on June 1<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when we\u2019ll really know who falls in and who falls out,\u201d Bugay said at the March 17 meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n New federal requirements for CalFresh mandates recipients ages 18-64 to serve a minimum amount of hours on a job to stay eligible for the program. The new requirement, which has few exceptions, could impact over a million residents across the state, according to a report shared by the Public Policy Institute of California<\/a> last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over a quarter of a million Fresno County residents were enrolled for CalFresh in 2025, according to a report released last year<\/a> by the California Association of Food Banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n On top of that, the county will need to allocate resources to more closely monitor their error rates because of higher penalties for mistakes in payment amounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bugay said that the most recent error rate was about 4%. That rate was an improvement for the county, but she added that she believes \u201cwe are going to have a higher error rate just on the natural because of H.R. 1 implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n Other changes to Medi-Cal, like newly established work requirements<\/a>, could also lead to as many as 30,000 residents losing coverage, according to Tuesday\u2019s presentation.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Pacheco-Werner said that requirements like these can sometimes pass by nationally through a narrative that \u201clazy\u201d workers are taking advantage of these programs. But she added that those narratives typically ignore the struggle prospective workers have in finding a job, \u201cespecially the disabled.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRequirements like these will always have a stronger burden on places like the Valley,\u201d Pacheco-Werner said. \u201cWe are talking about a region that is already economically depressed, where people already have a hard time finding a job, any job\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Fresno County has an unemployment rate of about 8.5%, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank<\/a>. That\u2019s higher than the state\u2019s rate<\/a>, and almost double the nation\u2019s average<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Early last year<\/a>, the Trump Administration cut $12 billion in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The effect of those cuts trickled down to Fresno by way of an $11 million loss in federal grants<\/a>, leading to job losses and early contract terminations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The West Family Fresno Resource Center was among the local organizations affected by those cuts. Yolanda Randles, the Center\u2019s executive director, said there are losses that happen beyond the reported loss of jobs and funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re that trusted entity that folks rely on for support,\u201d Randles said. \u201cIf we\u2019re not there, then where can those people turn to?\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how many people were affected by last year\u2019s fiscal cuts last year, Randles did not have an exact number to share, but she was comfortable enough to say that the number was in the \u201cthousands.\u201d<\/p>\n Last fall<\/a> also saw multiple local leaders and organizations financially step up to cover a brief stop in CalFresh funding during the federal government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n Natalie Caples, co-CEO of the Central California Food Bank, told Fresnoland that they saw more than 67,000 new* visitors between October and November last year during that stretch. Though the shutdown ended in early November, Caples added that the increased services for the food bank lasted until December.<\/p>\n Caples said the food bank is preparing to see an influx of visitors impacted by the changes from H.R. 1 starting in October, and is already lobbying with state lawmakers to help as a result. Alongside the California Association of Food Banks, they\u2019re lobbying for among other things, an extra $50 million in one-time funding to help mitigate the effects of the federal policy.<\/p>\n Since the state legally requires counties to provide basic and necessary health coverage to many of these individuals<\/a>, Fresno\u2019s health departments could see an exponential increase in health costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fresno County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland said that among the county\u2019s future considerations will be to decide if they should reevaluate Fresno\u2019s eligibility criteria for indignant care following an anticipated increase in the population, and considering how to financially handle the hiring of new workers necessary to monitor Medi-Cal\u2019s updated work requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the next 12 months alone<\/a>, immigrants living lawfully in the U.S. will lose their healthcare coverage, and the work requirements will kick in \u2014 both moves that will surely affect health providers across the state.<\/p>\n Is the state government likely to help ?\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week\u2019s news release shared that the counties<\/a> are asking the state for a commitment of more than $6 billion dollars over the next two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n California Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed budget plan<\/a> in January. The plan included investments that would cover an estimated amount anticipated to be lost in state funds due to the Big Beautiful Bill.<\/p>\n However, state budget analysts<\/a> believe the governor\u2019s estimates are off by billions.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The next state budget revised proposal will be released in May.<\/p>\n Does the county have funding alternatives to shore up these losses?<\/p>\n Fresno County staff says there are some tools at their disposal that could help bring in more revenue, money that could partially offset some of these changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n