'Nothing Is Sacred' As County Layoffs, Pay Cuts Loom

Terse discussion of how to address an expected $80 million deficit in the next fiscal year triggered a debate today between Riverside County supervisors about possible methods to rein in spending -- and the public manner in which the county's "extreme challenges" should be addressed.

"We have a severe and persistent problem here to solve," county
Executive Officer Bill Luna told the Board of Supervisors. "We have to shrink the size of government we have."

The county's three-year-old structural budget deficit dominated a
discussion about formally adopting the 2011-12 fiscal year blueprint that the supervisors tentatively approved in June.

Luna had requested that the spending plan not be ratified until today -- it was approved on a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor Jeff Stone absent -- to give the Executive Office time to assess the impact of the state budget.

Luna and county Chief Financial Officer Ed Corser offered a "good
news/bad news" assessment. On the upside, the county ended the 2010-11 fiscal year with nearly $30 million more cash than expected.

Its discretionary revenue was also $12 million over what budgetary analysts had estimated -- $605 million versus $593 million.

However, with a high probability that the area's property values and
sales tax receipts will continue to decline over the next several years, more financial hardship lay ahead, Luna warned.

A projected $80 million deficit on the county's books at the end of the
current fiscal year, he said, warranted planning well in advance to mitigate the next round of budget cuts.

Options to bridge the budget gap include borrowing against county-owned property and investments, salary cuts, depleting reserves and layoffs, according to Corser.

Board Chairman Bob Buster said the county had gone too long without a long-term fix for its budget woes.

"When are we going to balance this budget? Next year?" he said. "What disturbs me is this is the worst budget cycle we've faced, and the county's strategy to date has not yielded results, and what we're headed toward is a lot of layoffs."

The supervisor recommended a permanent across-the-board pay cut and reiterated a request he made earlier in the year for an audit of sheriff's department operations to determine whether the agency is allocating resources for maximum efficiency.

"Non-public safety agencies have been cut back an average of 35
percent," Buster said. "Yet (public safety) agencies have been allowed to just roll along, going well over their budgets."

Supervisor John Tavaglione accused Buster of using his place on the dais as a "bully pulpit" and behaving like an alarmist.

"The comments I'm hearing would lead some to believe we're in a panic up here. I hate that," Tavaglione said. "We have an obligation to remain calm and make thoughtful decisions during these extreme challenges. We've been through a lot of economic cycles, but we always come back, and we come back better."

After the chairman questioned Undersheriff Colleen Walker about a lack of "any kind of strategy" by the sheriff to streamline operations and contain costs, Tavaglione urged a "more deliberate, professional and diplomatic approach" in conducting budget hearings.

"Your tangents, Mr. Buster, are unacceptable and wrong," he said.

Buster replied that "diplomacy is important, but substance is, too."

Supervisors Marion Ashley and John Benoit requested that the Executive Office draw up detailed charts showing the cuts each county agency has absorbed over the last decade to judge how future cuts should be targeted.

"Nothing is sacred," Ashley said. "This is too desperate of a situation. Nobody's going to get a free ride ... We're going to have to hunker
down and work real hard."

Luna cautioned against further draw-downs on the county's reserve for economic uncertainty, which has declined to $125 million -- less than half of what it was in 2007.

The board directed him to return on Nov. 1 with alternate cost-reduction proposals that incorporate layoffs, pay cuts, pension reform and other mechanisms.

The aggregate 2011-12 budget approved by the board today was around $4.78 billion, compared to $4.73 billion in 2010-11.

City News Service contributed to this story.