Yuba County Board of Supervisors approve $179.6 million temporary budget
Yuba County supervisors adopted a temporary budget for the upcoming fiscal year at a meeting on Tuesday and will use it as an interim spending plan until a final budget is approved later this year. While the proposed budget was balanced, the county administrator warned the board that future budgets might not be as easy to maneuver.
The county’s proposed budget for fiscal year 201819 has an operating fund of $179.6 million.
“We did balance the budget, but it’s being balanced with the use of limited onetime funds,” said County Administrator Robert Bendorf.
The general fund – which is the real indicator of how a county is fairing, Bendorf said – is projected to be $30.4 million in the upcoming year. The good news, he said, is that general fund revenues took a turn for the better compared to last year’s budget, but the bad news is that it still hasn’t reached its peak of $34 million back in FY 2007/08, all while the cost of doing business continues to rise.
Some of the most significant cost increases, Bendorf said, have to do with employee health insurance, pensions and workers compensation rates – which are unlikely to decrease in cost any time soon.
On top of that, he said, costs to operate the public protection wing – departments like the sheriff’s office, district attorney, code enforcement and probation – continue to require more and more of the county’s available funds. In the upcoming budget, public protection soaks up 76 percent of the general fund.
That has resulted in the county having to cut from other departments to make up the difference – none more so than in general government, which has made nearly $4 million in cuts since FY 2007/08.
“It’s kind of a dire situation,” said Supervisor Doug Lofton. “We are one domino away from a collapse, with respect to the public safety budget. It started before my tenure on the board, but the county departments have had to make up for it by not filling empty positions and cutting costs where they can. It’s been going on for quite some time.”
Supervisor Andy Vasquez said it’s important to understand that much of the blame for the rising costs associated with public protection comes down to the policies that the state implements, not what local jurisdictions are doing. Considering the current situation, Vasquez said he felt confident the county would find a way to manage.
“Staff has done a great job in finding ways to stretch the dollar,” Vasquez said. “We are very fortunate as supervisors that we have so many competent people as department heads.”
Bendorf said there are a number of issues that have the attention of officials moving forward.
One concern is what will happen if California voters nix the gas tax increase in the upcoming General Election in November. Another is what the state’s next governor will decide to do with the sanctuary state law – primarily with the county’s $6.5 million contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house detainees at the Yuba County Jail. If either of those go away, Bendorf said, the county would be devastated.
“Going into FY 2019/20, it’s going to be a little different. We are going to start working on that budget almost immediately,” Bendorf said. “We will be working with department heads to figure out anything we can do to reduce costs or be more efficient. I think we do that every year but we plan on starting earlier. I feel it’s absolutely necessary.”
The highest priorities and concerns moving forward, said Supervisor Randy Fletcher, are how the county will deal with increasing costs for public safety and infrastructure, primarily with roads.
“Budgets are always a challenge. Yuba County has its own challenges, we never have enough to cover all the expenses, but we make due with what we have,” Fletcher said. “We are very fortunate to have staff that actually work the details out before they come to the board. It’s a real asset to the board and the community, that they understand our financial situation and manage it accordingly.”
In addition to the adoption of the interim spending plan, supervisors set dates for budget workshops – August 14-15.
Once those budget workshops are completed, the county will hold public hearings on the final budget before it is adopted. Those hearings are expected to commence Sept. 11. sical guitar, said when you play a guitar made of cheap wood, it may sound good the first couple of times, but after awhile, the sound becomes mediocre and tones become indistinguishable from one another. The same is true for pianos. “A lot of people say it’s the craftsmanship, of course, but it is also the wood,” Mathews said. “It’s a very expensive wood with no knots or imperfections, so the vibration and the tone quality is excellent. So, Steinway wouldn’t be selling all these pianos for so much money if they weren’t good. Symphony halls have Steinways because of the way the sound carries and the beauty of it. In many ways, the teachers are held back when you play on a cheap piano.”
Mathews said a cheap piano is fine for the run-of-themill student who wants to practice for a bit, but they can actually be detrimental to a music major, whose future will depend on identifying minute details in tone.
For Yuko Mcwhorter, who graduated from Yuba College in 2007 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music from Chico State University, she credited not only the instruction at the community college but the opportunity to play a Steinway.
“I practiced hours every day in a practice room at Yuba College and I was very happy that I could play music on Steinway pianos, one of the best piano makers in the world,” Mcwhorter said. “My piano teacher at Chico State was very surprised when I told her Yuba College has Steinway pianos in practice rooms. Now, thanks to Yuba College’s music department, I am teaching intermediate and advanced piano students at Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts.”
Mcwhorter said the music department also helps to organize a recital every year for her private students. She said it is a Kodak moment when a young kid gets an opportunity to play a Steinway in the college’s theater.