269 Layoffs, Freeze of 108 Vacancies Sought in Proposed County Budget

County supervisors will be asked next week to adopt a budget for the coming fiscal year that could result in 269 county workers being laid off and 108 vacant positions being left unfilled.

A working paper by County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish, given to supervisors this week and subject to revision, suggested possible layoffs of 92 workers in the Social Services Agency, 41 in the Health Care Agency, 68 in the Probation Department and the rest in other offices.

Social Services now has 1,790 workers and two vacancies; Health Care has 1,606 workers and 41 vacancies; Probation has 956 workers and 30 vacancies.

The supervisors will adopt a proposed budget of just over $1 billion Wednesday and adjust it in budget hearings scheduled to begin Aug. 5. The fiscal year begins July 1.

Parrish said the likely result of the cuts, if implemented, would be longer waits for people obtaining assistance from Social Services programs, a “modest reduction” in services to dependent children and reductions in family planning and drug-treatment programs provided by the Health Care Agency.

The budget difficulties are rooted in several areas.

County officials said increased spending in a whole array of criminal justice programs--from prosecuting criminals to defending them, from providing security in courts to building new courts--had caused part of the crunch.

Because of Proposition 13, passed by California voters in 1978, the county cannot simply raise property taxes to cover increased spending. And because of another voter initiative known as the Gann limit, it has a ceiling on how much it can spend.

The county auditor-controller has warned planners that the county could hit that ceiling in the next fiscal year, so budget makers are trying to hold the line on spending.

Last December, Parrish set target budgets for county agencies. But as spending in the current fiscal year increased, meaning there would be less money to carry over to next year, he told the agencies to draw up plans for a 6% cut in target budgets.

Later there were concerns about how much money the county would collect from sources such as taxes and federal and state grants. Parrish told agency heads to draw up plans for a 12% reduction. Then came planning for “worst case” 22% cuts.

This week’s letter said the latest figures showed an average cut of 10% from original targets. But the budget assumes that county employees are not given pay raises. Virtually all county employee unions are negotiating renewal of their contracts, including pay raises, with the county this year.