Bolstered by a surging real estate market, L.A. county officials Monday unveiled a proposed $18.5 billion budget that restores some services cut during the last four years and reopens jails.
The 2005-06 county budget is 3 percent, or $565 million, larger than the current budget, increasing staffing 2 percent, or by 1,684 positions.
But L.A. County Administrator David Janssen warned that state and federal budget cuts could still harm the county and that an impending $435 million shortfall in funding for the health department could force hospital closures and other unwanted measures.
“This year, we have finally achieved some stability in our budget. But there is one huge challenge looming and that’s the health department,” Janssen said. “A year from now, I’m going to be back here explaining how we’re going to be addressing a $435 million shortfall.”
Janssen said the county is placing $40 million in reserve accounts to begin addressing this shortfall, which is the result of next year’s expiration of a federal bailout package for the county health department.
Moreover, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own proposed state budget unveiled in January contains $172 million in funding cuts for L.A. County, while the federal government has put on the table a total of $288 million in takeaways from county programs.
If these state and federal cuts take place, they would almost completely wipe out $565 million earmarked for additional spending in the proposed 2005-06 budget. Janssen said he did not include those cuts in his budget because they are not certain. “If those cuts do take place, then we’ll have to cut services this year,” he said.
For now, though, extra revenues are pouring into county coffers from a robust real estate market. Janssen said that assessed property values have jumped 9 percent in the past year. That’s higher than the 7.6 percent increase County Assessor Rick Auerbach reported last year for 2003.
And Janssen noted that because of Proposition 1A, passed by voters last November, the state is barred from taking more of those property tax revenues than previously agreed to.
Among the spending increases in the 2005-06 budget is $50 million to reopen 2,127 beds in several jails throughout the county. That’s in addition to the 1,778 additional jail beds authorized by the County Board of Supervisors earlier this year. Sheriff Lee Baca has come under stiff criticism for releasing inmates early due to budget cuts.
The budget also includes $5 million for the District Attorney to hire 45 additional prosecutors and fund 10 new positions on a homeland security task force. The Public Defender’s office would receive $5.8 million for 58 new positions.
Unincorporated areas of the county representing roughly 1 million people would receive a nearly $100 million funding boost, including $44 million for new libraries and $37 million for increased parks and recreation funding.
The Board of Supervisors must act on the spending plan before the fiscal year ends June 30.
