Last night's Board of Supervisors meeting was interesting. Lori
Norton, CAO, did a extensive presentation of the county financial
condition which is, bottom line, we are overspending about $7.1 million
in the General Fund. The chart provided at a previous budget meeting
which clearly showed the relationship of spending to income was missing
in this presentation.
The
General Fund is about $32.2 million and local officials decide how it
gets used following state law. Calaveras is a general law county which
hinders outsourcing of services to improve quality and reduce cost. A
Charter county has more independence.
Property
taxes are the biggest single component of the General Fund at about
$9.16 million. That's down significantly from the more than $13 million a
year received before the recession.
Most of the presentation was about ways to increase taxes (with voter approval) and fees such as:
(1) Increasing the sales tax.
(2) Increasing the county's Transient Occupancy Tax.
(3) Departments to increase fees.
(4) Additional Development Impact Fees.
(5) Increase Transaction Use Tax
On the
positive side, there were proposals from the Sheriffs Department to
share some services/cost with neighboring counties such as renting jail
beds and renting space on new Sheriffs radio tower.
Doing
most of those tax increases would take time, and wouldn't happen unless
voters supported it. Also the income would likely be far less than the
current gap between county spending and revenues.
The Auditor, CAO, Supervisor Calaway and the CCTA have repeatedly
warned the elected board that it was approving a level of spending that
can't be sustained. At a previous meeting the Board attempted to
disapprove of their previously approved budget when it was clear how bad
it was. They had to then pass it to conform to a state deadline.
There were some positive suggestions from the Sheriff
Department and County Taxpayers Association, such as getting advice from
an expert on reducing expenses like the Sheriffs office has done and to
study changing to a Charter County to encourage elected leaders to be
more responsive to the taxpayers rather than being agents of the state.
Also, the county leaders should focus on reducing expenses rather than
increasing taxation, because high taxes hurt the people and our economy.
The CCTA has repeatedly suggested that all functions
of government be prioritized according to purpose and that public
safety should be among the most important functions. Other critical
county departments seem to include the Assessor, Auditor, Recorder and
Tax Collector.
Best Regards. - Al