Public meeting to discuss $688.7M El Dorado County recommended budget

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The Board of Supervisors will hold a public meeting on June 17 to go over the El Dorado County Fiscal Year 2019-20 Recommended Budget of $688.7 million. This special meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. and will be held in the Board's Placerville meeting room at 330 Fair Lane.

The County's Chief Administrative Officer, Don Ashton delivered the budget to the supervisors and it is also available online for review. State law mandates that the Recommended Budget be submitted to the Board on or before June 30th of each year.

During their June 17 meeting, the supervisors will receive public input and possibly make additions, deletions or modifications to the recommended plan.

“I’m pleased to present to the Board and residents of El Dorado County a budget that is balanced, meets State requirements and fully funds the General Fund Contingency, General Reserves and the Designation for Capital Projects in accordance with the Board’s adopted budget policies,” Ashton said.

The total Recommended Budget for all Governmental Funds for FY 2019-20 is $688.7 million, which is $56.5 million (8 percent) more than the FY 2018-19 Adopted Budget of $632.2 million. The total reflects all Governmental Funds, including Special Revenue Funds.

Total General Fund appropriations – which are used mainly for discretionary programs – are recommended at $313.2 million, which is $18.4 million (6.2 percent) more than the FY 2018-19 Adopted Budget of $294.8 million approved by the Board in September of 2018.

“While this increase in General Fund totals may be greater than anticipated, it should be noted that the majority of the growth in the General Fund is in non-discretionary spending. This includes the impact of completed labor negotiations which reflect cost increases consistent with the Board compensation philosophy, growth related to Charter Section 504 pay rate increases for certain public safety classifications, and growth in CalPERS retirement costs, or reflects cost increases tied to outside funding sources. As a result, the net increase in the General Fund net county cost is just over $3 million,” Ashton said.

In accordance with the Board’s adopted budget policies, this Recommended Budget fully funds the General Fund Contingency at $5.45 million to provide resources in the event of unforeseen fiscal issues; General Reserves at $8.85 million to provide resources in the event of significant emergency situations; and the Designation for Capital Projects reserves at $5 million. If the County ends the current fiscal year with a higher-than-anticipated fund balance, the recommended priority will be to set aside those funds to offset CalPERS increases and/or OPEB liability in accordance with the Board’s budgeting practice.

In his budget memo to the Board, Ashton reminded supervisors that California is in its ninth consecutive year of economic growth and that, as agents of the State, the County must prepare for additional rising costs as well as a future downturn in revenues.

“Unlike the significant layoffs and service level reductions that occurred during the last recession that were caused by a reduction in revenues, local jurisdictions are now facing difficult decisions relative to staffing and service levels as a result of increasing costs, primarily CalPERS and infrastructure cost increases,” he said.

“The FY 2019-20 Budget was much more difficult to balance than the last two years and many requests from departments are not being recommended,” Ashton pointed out. “It will only become more difficult in FY 2020-21 and future years.”

The following are some of the more significant future year costs:
- CalPERS costs increases averaging $4 million/year (estimated $2.5 million General Fund)
- Public Safety Facility ongoing General Fund cost of $2.3 million beginning in FY 2021-22
- Jail Expansion ongoing General Fund cost of $1 million beginning in FY 2021-22
- Placerville Jail Deferred Maintenance, FY 2019-20: $830,000 one-time cost
- Placerville Jail Deferred Maintenance, FY 2020-21 – 2024-25: $2 million one-time cost
- South Lake Tahoe Jail Deferred Maintenance, 5 years: $1.5 million one-time cost
- Shakori Department of Transportation facility, South Lake Tahoe: $2 million one-time cost

The budget was developed based on policy direction from the Board of Supervisors in accordance with their priorities and in collaboration with each department to evaluate their needs, expenditure patterns and requests for funding. Each County program was reviewed based on the following criteria, with the understanding that
new and enhanced programs would not be considered unless a dedicated source of revenue could be identified:
• Compliance with State mandated programs and services
• Compliance with Board priorities
• Consistency with the County’s Strategic Plan and Board priorities
• Conservative but realistic revenue and expenditure projections
• Preparing for the impacts of future year commitments and requirements
• Service level and system-wide impacts
• Efficiencies

The entire Recommended Budget can be found here. Detailed budget schedules by department can be found here. Both documents are on the County’s website here.