Sacramento County supervisors approve nearly $9 billion budget. What’s getting funded?
All members of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors swiftly approved Wednesday a nearly $9 billion budget for the coming year with minimal changes. Although the budget is larger than the one recommended for the 2023-24 fiscal year, the county — which provides services to all residents — opted not to fill dozens of vacant positions.
The board made two changes to the budget proposed by staff: It added money for two attorneys — one in the District Attorney’s Office, and one in the Public Defender’s Office — and it included language committing to funding the Black Child Legacy Campaign for three years.
In a letter to the board, County Executive David Villanueva listed several departments that should be prioritized if more funding becomes available by the time the board considers the revised budget in September. The county plans to send $17,000 more to Animal Services, if possible.
In the proposed budget, the Department of Health Services as well as Child, Family and Adult Services saw an increase of $14 million and $4.4 million in total appropriations, respectively. Another significant increase went to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, which got an additional $3.7 million in total appropriations.
In the last fiscal year, the Sheriff’s Office asked for a nearly 7% budget increase of more than $35 million, citing “dire needs.” The total appropriations for the Sheriff’s Office are currently set at $681 million in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The District Attorney’s Office also saw its total appropriations rise by $2.5 million to $125.9 million.
Regional Parks appropriations went down by 1% to $30 million. Total appropriations to the Public Defender also went down by 3% to $59.8 million.
Many of the cuts in the budget represented money earmarked in the general fund for vacant positions. Ultimately, 31 vacant full-time equivalent positions were cut, and the board added two attorneys. The Department of Health Services lost 14 positions, one position was cut was cut from the Department of Human Assistance, and 16 were cut from Child, Family and Adult Services.
Of the cuts to the Department of Health Services, 12 of the vacant positions were in primary health clinics. The county has plans to restore the positions if other funding becomes available.
New attorneys to prosecute, defend in drug cases
In his presentation to the board, District Attorney Thien Ho said that last year, authorities across California had seized enough fentanyl to kill everyone on Earth. He said one sugar packet of fentanyl could kill 500 people, suggesting that authorities had seized the equivalent of 15.9 million sugar packets full of fentanyl for the global population of nearly 8 billion people.
Law enforcement in the county, Ho said, has begun to investigate fentanyl overdose deaths as if they were homicides. During his tenure, five people have been prosecuted for homicide after fentanyl overdose deaths. “It requires,” he said, “a tremendous amount of resources.”
He asked for funding for an additional prosecutor to focus on narcotics cases.
Chief Public Defender Amanda Benson spoke after Ho and asked the board to make sure to give more money to her office if it financially supported Ho’s proposal to ramp up criminal prosecutions over overdose deaths.
Cuts to budget as expensive jail looms
The cuts to vacant positions come as the board continues to mull whether to pay for a costly addition to the Main Jail downtown. In August 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved almost $1 billion in bond debt to build a new jail annex at the I Street facility, though it would still have to take more steps to issue the bond.
When the board discussed the plan in December 2022 — at which point the proposal was for a $450 million jail expansion — then-Supervisor Don Nottoli opposed taking on the debt because, he said, a mortgage “is recession-proof,” and he remembered making painful cuts to services in past lean times. Having to pay off a large debt, he said, “will limit this county’s ability if things get bad again.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the status of an Animal Services veterinary position. Animal Services will be prioritized for some additional funding in September. The story also misstated the number of vacant positions that were cut in the proposal. The total number of vacant positions being cut is 31.
