COUNTY BUDGET COULD GROW BY 10%
Increased spending on social services, public safety seen for next year
County department heads outlined their spending plans for the next year at a public hearing Thursday, offering new details on proposed spending increases that will raise the county budget by 10 percent to $8.1 million. But they also warned that an economic downturn, combined with the end of federal COVID-19 funding, may limit their spending in the future.
The Health and Human Services Agency will see the biggest bump — $377 million, or 13 percent — which includes new spending on mental health and substance-use treatment, immigrant and refugee services and expanded food assistance and other aid. That’s followed by Public Safety, with a $137 million, or 5.5 percent, increase aimed at improving victim services, expanding the juvenile diversion program and providing better health care to incarcerated people.
“There may be difficult years ahead of us, and because of that, it is important as a board to ensure fiscal responsibility,” Board Chair Nora Vargas said.
Nick Macchione, the health agency director, said federal and state COVID-19 funds have enabled the agency to help immigrants and refugees, support children and families and reform behavioral health services.
The agency is launching a new Child and Family Well-Being Department
to prevent neglect and abuse, he said, and is also creating a childcare blueprint to address the high costs of child care and barriers to access.
It also has expanded eligibility for adult protection services and raised wages for home caregivers. “We know that our older adult population is living longer,” he said.
The health agency is proposing to add 354 positions, with new hires targeted to administer CalWORKS, CalFresh and Medi-Cal, launch
drug prevention programs with opioid settlement money and manage investigations and treatment plans for CARE Court, a state program to mandate care for some people with untreated mental illnesses.
But as pandemic funding ends and the state financial outlook worsens, “we know we will not be able to grow at the same pace” as this year, he said.
Macchione said the new positions requested represent hires for “only the most critical core services,” and said he expects to leave some positions vacant to balance the budget.
Much of the health agency’s proposed increase — 125 positions and more than $120 million of it — would go to Behavioral Health Services, said its director Luke Bergman, including 63 positions for mental health care and and openings for data science, infrastructure support, community engagement and other specialties.
The increased funding would enable the department to expand crisis care, develop a mental health care work force, distribute naloxone treatment to prevent opioid overdose deaths and launch education campaigns about the danger of fentanyl use, Bergman said.
Also within the health agency, Housing and Community Development Services is working on 20 new developments to add 1,805 new affordable homes, after overseeing construction of
465 over the past fiscal year.
That division would not see a funding increase under the proposed budget. But a separate allocation of $25 million for the “innovative housing trust fund” would help pay for housing for low-income families, seniors, veterans, youth and homeless people.
Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities, another Health and Human Services department, is slated for a $6 million increase and plans to add 200 emergency beds and safe parking spaces in East County, distribute subsidies to help seniors meet rent payments and offer housing assistance for LGBTQ+ people.
The county’s Land Use and Environment Group, which manages development, planning, environmental health and public works, would see a $37 million, or nearly 6 percent, increase under the proposed budget, along with 55 new positions.
The Finance and General Government Group would get an additional $74 million for a 9 percent increase, as well as 40 new staff positions.
And the Capital Program would see a 50 percent boost of $87 million for projects including the county’s $127 million public health lab, a new Jacumba fire station, Otay Valley Regional Park and an East County crisis stabilization unit to provide care for people experiencing mental health emergencies.