June 22, 2007

Kniss Brings Balance to County Budget

With a proposed budget reduction in county departments for the 5th year in a row, the effects on service to the community were laid bare. As the process of budget deliberations and public input took place over the past 3 months, my goal was to end up in June with a balanced budget that both met the needs of the most vulnerable, and retained our excellent credit rating and history of fiscal responsibility. With a focus on retaining services provided directly to the public, those with the ability to leverage funding or receive matching funds, and those services that increase cultural access and/or geographic access across our County, I was able to meet that goal. In addition, we maintained a comfortable level of contingency reserve. In fact, in a recent comparison of the 10 most populous Counties in California, Santa Clara County's contingency "savings account" was higher than the average of the 9 other Counties.

Services I supported being retained will result in the following:

• Mental Health Department - 4,500 people to remain in treatment.
• Department of Drug and Alcohol - 4,200 people to remain in treatment, support to the justice system to keep offenders in treatment.
• Public Health Department - nursing visits in the community and tracking of communicable disease.
• Access to 4,000 non-profit medical clinic appointments.
• Adequate staffing in the Public Defender and District Attorney offices.
• Support to non-profit community based programs related to children and families.

Our General Fund revenue is often described as discretionary dollars, as compared to other funds which are required to be dedicated to specific expenditures. The General Fund, roughly $2 billion dollars this year, comes mainly from the State and Federal government and property taxes. Comparing our revenue to just 3 years ago, while our federal dollars have remained relatively stable, our state dollars have droppped by 12.5%, or $93 million dollars. These dollars have not kept up with the cost of providing services mandated by the State, nor have they kept up with the demand for service levels reflected by the need in our community. Compounding this revenue loss is the failure of Medi-Cal reimbursement to cover the cost of providing health care at the County hospital and the costs picked up by the County for those with no health coverage at all, as well as reimbursements to the Social Services Agency being frozen at 2001 levels.

In response to these financial shortfalls we have consistently reviewed of our fiscal and service priorities. I think we have done an excellent job of looking for ways to make the most of our dollars, including issuing pension obligation bonds and securing revenue from our future tobacco settlement monies. This has allowed us to continue providing vital services - and put money in savings for emergency or unforseen circumstances.