County Faces Cutbacks in Revenue Shortfall

The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote next week on a midyear budget cut that could mean layoffs or lost programs because several million dollars in anticipated revenue has failed to materialize.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish Wednesday declined to disclose details of the plan, which has not yet been presented to the board.

A one-sentence description of the agenda item given to the supervisors this week said only: “The County Administrative Office is reporting on the current status of the county budget and recommending mitigation measures to reduce the impact from unrealized revenues.”

Property Sale Stalled

When the supervisors adopted the budget for the current fiscal year in August, it included about $22 million that the county did not have in hand but expected to receive.

Since then, a prospective $2-million state grant did not pass the Legislature and a sale of excess county property that was supposed to generate $10 million has been stalled.

The county is expecting about $12 million from a new program under which the state would assume the cost of operating courts in the county. But the county administration and the judges are involved in a dispute over how the money should be spent, and the state requires that they agree before they can join the program.

Last summer, county officials said the $22 million represented roughly a 10% cut in every department in the county. Officials estimated at the time that a shortfall of that magnitude could mean at least 400 layoffs.