Severe budget cuts to Sacramento County programs and controversial layoffs for 186 employees in the Child Protective Services unit are part of the 2009/2010 fiscal year budget that was approved by the Board of Supervisors Friday. The county, which had faced an immense budget gap of $76 million, laid off 300 workers last month. The total budget the supervisors approved is $4.2 billion. Around $1.9 billion of that total is the county’s general fund. More than 700 county employees have been laid off since July. CPS has faced criticism from the county’s grand jury and MGT of America, Inc., a management consulting firm, over child fatalities. Ann Edwards-Buckley, director of the county’s Depa

The county’s planned budget cuts to local health services drew withering criticism Wednesday from a member of the public health advisory board and public interest attorneys. During the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors’ second day of final budget hearings, critics charged that the cuts were unlawful and decided in a “closed-door” process. The supervisors are planning more than 360 layoffs and cuts to numerous county programs to address a budget gap in excess of $54.5 million. Wednesday’s hearing addressed proposed cuts to health services in numerous areas including immunizations, California Children’s Services, Community Health Promotion & Infectious Disease Prevention, Community Di

In the second day of workshops on Sacramento County’s budget crisis, county officials continued to present harsh statistics on how proposed budget cuts would seriously harm residents’ quality of life. The acting director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department Thursday said the budget cuts could create a series of problems, ranging from the shuttering of a parenting program for low-income people to a possible rise in the number of HIV/AIDS cases. The county is examining possible cuts to confront a $180 million budget deficit. About 250 people packed the county Board of Supervisors’ chambers Thursday morning, according to an estimate from Ken McIntosh, a county facility secu