Amid coronavirus and calls to defund sheriff, Sacramento supervisors OK ‘placeholder’ budget
Sacramento County has approved a placeholder budget to last the next three months, as county staff continues to assess the financial fallout of the coronavirus and elected officials face calls to reallocate Sheriff’s Office funding amid ongoing protest of police brutality.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend its current more than $4 billion budget, giving county staff more time to assess the impacts of the pandemic and plan for potential department cuts.
That means funding levels will stay the same across departments through the summer.
County staff hope to bring a new revised budget to the board by Aug. 28 that would include updated estimates for how much the county expects to bring this upcoming year, and any potential cuts. Hearings to review the proposal are set for Sept. 9.
“Generally speaking, this is a placeholder,” said County Executive Nav Gill said during Tuesday’s meeting. “What we’re doing over the next couple months is continuing to work with the departments, (find) what needs to be funded and come back in September.”
Calls to ‘defund’ the Sheriff’s Office
The delay in a final budget for the upcoming year comes after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis ignited protests across Sacramento County.
Those demonstrations have brought demands by some to “defund the police,” a nationwide movement that urges cities and counties to shift funding away from law enforcement agencies and to direct it towards other social needs like affordable housing, community programs or mental health services.
The Sheriff’s Office currently receives about $277 million in funding from the county, making up the largest share of the Sacramento County budget.
Protesters with Decarcerate Sacramento rallied Monday outside the county administration building, with dozens more joining virtually on a video-conference call. They called on county supervisors to slash funds for the Sheriff’s Office, and to cancel its roughly $7 million design contract for a new facility at the Main Jail that it approved in April.
Law enforcement funding has gone up “over and over and over” again for years, said Sacramento Building Healthy Communities health director Kim Williams, “and the problems in our communities have continued to get bigger and bigger and bigger.”
“We have to redefine how we are looking at public safety,” Williams told the crowd Monday. “Public safety is mental health services, public safety is safe places for our homeless folks to go, public safety is people being able to live in affordable homes.”
COVID-19 causes uncertain financial future for Sacramento County
The annual budget process usually starts in October, and was running “in the normal fashion” through the winter, according to a county staff report.
“Then, in mid-March, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency hit and it became clear that the county was facing an unknown, but clearly significant, reduction in ... revenue,” the report stated.
The county is now anticipating a $72 million drop in tax funding, according to preliminary projections, or about a 5.6 percent gap in plan adopted last summer.
“However, it is very difficult to provide a projected loss revenue — not only because the pandemic is not yet over, but because it is impossible to predict how long the resulting recession period will last,” said county spokeswoman Janna Haynes in a statement.
By August, county staff hopes to know the decrease in revenue and what cuts may be needed.
The coronavirus has battered city and county budgets across the Sacramento region, forcing some to delay major projects, lay off staff and prepare to dip into reserves.
Sacramento County isn’t the only county rolling over its existing budget and delaying its final budget — Solano, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Ventura and Orange counties are doing so, too.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 5:00 PM.