requested by<\/a> the California State Association of Counties.\u00a0<\/p>\nThis is important because Fresno County expects to have increased costs of up to $294.5 million tied to indigent health care, county behavioral health services and increased administrative duties \u2014 all things the county must provide regardless of funding.<\/p>\n
Nerland said funds included in the state assembly\u2019s budget proposal are also just a \u201cdrop in the bucket\u201d compared to costs the county will face. The California State Assembly\u2019s proposed budget puts aside $250 million over the next two years to help counties pay for indigent healthcare in emergency situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put that in perspective, the county\u2019s obligations for the indigent care program are estimated to range between $40 and $240 million, just in Fresno County,\u201d Nerland said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Department budget cuts<\/p>\n
Limited assistance from the state means that Fresno County will have to cut its spending elsewhere. Nerland said departments are currently looking at 5% proposed cuts in net county cost compared to last year\u2019s budget. Net county cost is the impact on the county budget that is funded by general revenues from taxes and not covered by fees that county departments charge for services.<\/p>\n
Nerland thanked his department heads for doing more with less.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that it\u2019s not easy, but during times like this, we need to be creative and find ways to do more with what we have,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nerland told the board that he has asked departments to look at how to be more efficient at what they do. He also spoke to county employees who may have been listening in to the board meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are the backbone of our organization; I want to thank you for your hard work,\u201d Nerland said. \u201cWe\u2019ve made progress the last few years on salaries and benefits, and my hope is that after this fiscal year, the economic environment that we\u2019re in improves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the county has reserves that it could dip into when facing revenue shortfalls, Nerland said that these are typically used only in emergency situations after the county has exhausted all other remedies, such as cutting expenses and finding other revenue sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fresno County has a reserve of around $90 million. Nerland said that while that sounds like a lot, \u201cit\u2019s about less than half of the target that we would like to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the county does take from its reserves, Nerland said that could also impact its credit rating, which could later on hurt the county\u2019s ability to borrow funds at lower rates for facilities or future needs.<\/p>\n
Supervisor input<\/p>\n
Supervisors had few comments on the budget, with only Chavez providing any thoughts before the board approved the interim budget.<\/p>\n
Chavez said he was glad Nerland addressed county employees, as his recommendation is for the county to be as transparent and upfront as possible about financial projections for the next couple of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that will set realistic expectations for our folks, and I think we\u2019re just in that time period where everybody\u2019s going to have to get a haircut, so to speak, and that\u2019s just part of the process right now,\u201d Chavez said. \u201cI think we can get there working with our employees and making sure we establish that relationship from the beginning with trust, transparency and having productive conversations with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, Board Chair Garry Bredefeld at the end of the meeting said he wants county staff to conduct an analysis or study of what the cost savings would be if the county privatized its library system. Bredefeld said he wasn\u2019t saying the county would move in that direction but he thinks it needs to have that analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s something we as a board ought to certainly take a look at in light of all of the cuts that we\u2019re potentially facing, and certainly the loss of revenue that we appear to be facing from the feds and the state,\u201d Bredefeld said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO COUNTY \u2013 Fresno County administrators face difficult decisions over the next few months as they balance slowed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[15743,112,622,14447,114,113,32215],"class_list":["post-348730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-budget-cuts","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-county-board-of-supervisors","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-luis-chavez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348730","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=348730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}