Supes talk budget
Board also hears about department staffing shortages
LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors held their weekly meeting at 9 a.m. in the County Courthouse Chambers and online via zoom. During the meeting the Supervisors heard and approved a recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 — 2023, including the approval of a budget transfer from the Sheriff's Department.
Chief Deputy County Administrative Officer Steven Carter presented the proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 beginning after Sept. 22 2022. The proposed budget totaled $337,455,551 dollars, an increase of $18,069,436 dollars from the previous year. The general fund appropriations totaled $76,237,204 dollars, $6,995,140 dollars less than last year. Carter discussed several aspects of the budget which included staffing needs from many departments including the administrative office, probation, county counsel, librarians, maintenance, information technology and others. Carter also detailed extra items covered in the budget which included various roads and bridges, a new recording system for the Assessor/Recorder, as well funds to assist the Public Library in reaching their goal of creating a Mobile Library.
Carter explained different income revenues from various sources including sales tax, property tax, transient occupancy tax, cannabis tax and business tax. Most of these revenues had increased from last year while cannabis tax revenue has decreased with Carter noting “We had to provide money back to some of the cultivators due to the Board (of Supervisors) decision to lower
it down to 50 percent. We have received $6,704,062 dollars which is down a little over 1.6 million from the previous year.” Carter further stated “With all the changes that have happened with Cannabis I do want to say this is verging on not being sustainable for where we are heading.”
The reduced Cultivation Taxes and payments could be worrisome for the county with District Two Supervisor Bruno Sabatier responding “I have a concern on especially the Cannabis Stuff. I think that we are making a very large assumption that we're going to collect something. I'm not saying we're not going to collect anything but we know and we sat here with people saying they still had product from last year, some people had two years' worth of products.” District Four Supervisor Tina Scott added “We have to realize that we're not hanging our hat, everything, on cannabis. That we have so many things in the works that we've been working on to try to make sure that we have more money coming in to Lake County, the investments are one of them. We're unsure what that looks like. ” The budget was passed with a 4-1 vote with Supervisor Sabatier dissenting stating “Approving a budget is in my opinion one of the most important jobs we have on this dais and I appreciate the hard work the staff has done but four days to go over so many line items and to comprehend exactly what's going to happen and how to foreshadow how this is going to affect our finances is just not enough for me to be able to go through.”
Sheriff Brian Martin requested a Department budget transfer and presented regarding staffing concerns, as they have had trouble both recruiting and retaining staff leaving them with unfilled positions that will not be re-staffed and others that may have to be cut if drastic changes are not made. Martin described the staffing issues faced by Law Enforcement agencies across the state stating “Across the nation, across the state, hiring challenges in Law Enforcement are top headlines it's not a unique condition here in Lake County, but it's certainly something we'll be dealing with or we're going to have to cut additional services elsewhere.” Todd Metcalf, Director of Lake County Behavioral Health, shared his opinion stating “His staffing issues effect other departments, mine included. And I just want to bring that to the board that his staffing shortages do impact other departments and not in a good way.” The budget transfer was approved with a unanimous vote.
Minutes, agendas and video can all be found on the Lake County Website lakecounty.ca.gov as well as their Facebook page.