Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones is trying to prevent his department from having to lay off any employees despite facing a $4.3 million budget shortfall, according to Jones’ spokesman, Deputy Jason Ramos. The county budget was approved Thursday by the Board of Supervisors. Jones told the supervisors earlier this week that he recently brought down his department’s $26.7 million shortfall to $9.5 million. The Board of Supervisors restored $5.2 million to his budget Thursday, leaving a gap of $4.3 million. The supervisors resolved the county’s $90 million gap by making severe cuts. County Budget Officer Tom Burkart estimated that more than 200 layoffs may occur as a result of the budge

Sacramento County elected officials approved a budget Thursday that could result in more than 200 employee layoffs, according to county budget officer Tom Burkart. These layoffs for the 2011/2012 fiscal year are in addition to the 1,299 layoffs the county has made since the 2008/2009 fiscal year, said county spokeswoman Chris Andis. She added that 1,299 people were actually laid off as opposed to job positions being cut. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors balanced its budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year on Thursday afternoon, closing out a $90 million shortfall. The county has a general fund of $1.9 billion and a total budget of roughly $3.5 billion. The approved budget is a f

Sacramento County has made about 340 fewer layoffs than it had predicted it would make as a result of June budget cuts. County officials in June estimated that at least 725 employees could be laid off. The county resolved a $181 million budget gap in June when it passed a first draft of its budget. But County Budget Officer Tom Burkart said in an interview Wednesday that the county ended up laying off about 380 people, instead of 725. “The 725 actually was an estimate,” Burkart said. “And we did cut 700-plus positions, but they weren’t laid off.” Retirements, demotions and vacant positions kept the number of out-the-door layoffs down, according to Burkart. The county’s layoff process