Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "zeke holst"

County: New budget gap on top of $68 million shortfall

2009-09-17T03:15:43Z

On top of its current $68 million shortfall, Sacramento County has a new $8.1 million budget gap from falling sales tax revenues, Sacramento County officials told the Board of Supervisors Wednesday.

The new budget gap means that layoffs — in addition to the 382 currently proposed — are a definite possibility, which is unfortunate, said County Executive Terry Schutten in response to a question from The Sacramento Press.

The Board of Supervisors was scheduled to make final decisions today to balance its 2009/2010 budget. However, the situation changed in light of new information that the county’s sales tax revenues are plummeting again. The board now plans to make its final budget decisions on Tuesday.

Planned budget cuts include the 382 layoffs and shortened work schedules for about 7,000 employees, according to the most recently updated information available Wednesday from county spokesman Zeke Holst.

Schutten said that county executives met on Monday and nearly balanced the supervisors’ final budget priorities.

“However, at 4:45 p.m. ... on Monday afternoon, our chief operating officer received notification from our tax consultant that, for the last quarter, our sales tax were down 26 percent. And for the entire year-to-year, our drop was approximately 14 percent,” Schutten told the supervisors.

Those figures create a $4.1 million gap, he explained. The county lost another $4 million in revenues from sales taxes that are collected statewide and then delivered to local governments for public safety programs, Schutten said. The loss of the sales tax money that goes to public safety programs will affect the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, Probation Department and District Attorney’s office.

Meanwhile, the vice chair of United Public Employees Local 1 told the supervisors that the union would make concessions on retirement benefits if the county drops its proposal to shorten the work schedules for about 7,000 employees represented by unions.

“As a show of good faith yesterday, UPE is willing to defer the Retiree Health Savings Plan accounts that we have, which potentially saves the county millions of dollars," said Beverly Kearney, vice chair of UPE Local 1. "We’re hoping that this will save jobs and mitigate layoffs.”

But Schutten told The Sacramento Press after the board meeting that UPE’s proposal would not garner the savings the county needs. UPE’s “main concern was the retirement health care account, and that’s for $8 million,” Schutten said. "Of that $8 million, only $1.9 million is local dollars. So it’s not near enough to cover the shortfalls that we have. It was a good suggestion. We certainly appreciate it, and look forward to working with them.”

Photo of Supervisor Roger Dickinson by Kati Garner.

Photo of presentation on sales tax by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County avoided hundreds of layoffs

2009-07-23T04:11:05Z

Photo: Sheriff John McGinness

It still sounds bad: The county laid off more than 240 employees earlier this month. But it was supposed to be even worse: A total of 800 layoff notices were sent to county employees in June.

Though 800 pink slips were sent to employees in June, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and officials at county departments took steps to prevent several hundred of the planned layoffs, according to a county spokesman.

The county made major budget cuts to its departments and laid off 243 people to respond to its previous $180 million budget gap for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. The 243 figure does not account for layoffs at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office and at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

“After 800 letters were distributed, the Board or departments restored 293 positions due to various actions and rescinded those layoff notices,” County spokesman Zeke Holst explained. “That brought the total layoff notices down to 507. Of those, 197 transferred or demoted within their departments and 67 transferred or demoted to other departments.”

These actions lowered the number of layoffs to 243, Holst said. As late as July 1, Holst did not have an exact number for layoffs because county employees and managers were still figuring out how many people would lose jobs.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Department will lay off 209 sworn deputies and 40 other employees, Sgt. Tim Curran said. The last day of work for the Sheriff's Department employees facing layoffs will be Aug. 1.

Sheriff John McGinness acknowledged last month that he made an error when he crunched numbers for the numbers of layoffs at his department. When he corrected his error, he added about 80 more layoffs to the total.

The district attorney’s office is laying off 16 employees on Aug. 1, according to Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the office.

When the board of supervisors approved its proposed budget in June, the county still faced a $19 million budget gap in the state-mandated programs the county administers, according to Linda Foster-Hall, the county budget officer.

But the $19 million number “was a snapshot on June 17," Holst said. “Since that time, the number has fluctuated.”

Holst did not have a specific figure for the budget gap on July 20. County officials will present an update on the budget gap on Aug. 11, he said.

The county budget is now being affected in both positive and negative ways. “In a nutshell, we are in line to receive some federal dollars that will reduce the number [for the budget gap], which is good,” Holst said. “However, we are seeing a continued decrease in property tax and sales tax revenues.”

*Photo courtesy of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor: City may face more layoffs if state takes funds

2009-07-22T03:38:55Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson is worried that the state’s plans to take local revenues could lead to more layoffs of city workers and slow major development projects. County government officials are also alarmed about the state’s plan, which could be approved by the Legislature on Thursday.

Legislative officials and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are planning to use local funds to help balance the state’s $26.3 billion budget gap. The Legislature may take $1 billion in gas tax funds and $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds from local governments throughout the state. The state plan also includes borrowing $2 billion in revenues from local property taxes.

Earlier this month, the city laid off 135 workers and made severe cuts to programs to balance its budget for the 2009/2010 fiscal year.

Johnson told reporters Tuesday that he is participating in efforts to lobby against the state proposals. “I’m making phone calls, and we’re lobbying like crazy,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do at the end of the day, but we as a city need to be prepared.”

If the Legislature approves the plan to take money from local governments, the city would likely have to lay off more of its employees, according to Johnson.

“I’m a little bit in denial,” Johnson said, referring to the prospect of more layoffs.

Sacramento would be able to part with local property tax funds because the city can borrow from its risk funds, Johnson said. However, the city is concerned about the possible impacts from the state taking redevelopment and gas tax funds, he noted. Johnson said major development projects in Sacramento, such as The Railyards, Township 9 and Curtis Park Village, could be affected if the city is compelled to give redevelopment funds to the state.

The county could also face hardships if the Legislature approves the plan as part of the state budget. County spokesman Zeke Holst said redevelopment projects would have to wait if the state takes local redevelopment funds. If the state borrows from the county’s property taxes, county social services programs will suffer, he said.

If county gas tax funds are tapped into by the state, road maintenance in the county would be delayed, he said.

*Photo by Cheyenne Cary

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

970 jobs sliced

2009-07-03T02:18:02Z

For about 180 city employees and roughly 790 county employees, Thursday was the last day of work.

The city layoffs are part of the budget cuts the city approved when it passed its budget last month. When it passed its budget, city officials closed a $50 million deficit.

County layoffs came with the Board of Supervisors’ approval of its proposed budget last month. The county government had faced a $180 million deficit. For its final budget in September, the Board must still close out a $19 million budget gap in the state-mandated programs the county administers, according to Linda Foster-Hall, the county budget officer.

Some of the city’s unions made concessions to city managers in return for no layoffs. But some of the unions, including Stationary Engineers Local 39, did not make deals with the city.

The union represents a wide variety of workers in numerous city departments, including code enforcement, parks and recreation, parking enforcement and the solid waste division.

Mayor Kevin Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the failed negotiations with Local 39 were "disappointing."

“It’s the city workers who are impacted by this,” Johnson said. “And our team of negotiators went back and forth with the leadership of Local 39, trying to engage them over and over. And, at some point -- I cannot tell you why -- there was just not willingness at their part to negotiate.”

But Local 39 representatives claim that city officials were not interested in giving union members layoff protections.

“While other groups have been offered a no-layoff guarantee in exchange for wage concessions, the city adamantly refuses to do so for non-safety workers,” according to a Local 39 written statement.

Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Local 39, said Thursday that city officials “walked away from the talks.” The layoffs are unfortunate, she said.

The numbers of layoffs for both city and county employees were not exact by Thursday afternoon. The county sent out 793 pink slips to employees last month, but the number of total layoffs may be different when the county finishes calculating the exact numbers in the next two weeks, according to county spokesman Zeke Holst.

The numbers are not yet set in stone for several reasons, according to Holst. One of the reasons the numbers are still unclear is because there are employees choosing to retire, he added.

He also explained that the county is in the midst of “bumping” procedures. An employee who has seniority can move down to a lower position, he explained. When these employees move down to lower positions, they “bump” the people in the lower positions out of their jobs.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

A guide to Sacramento County budget hearings

2009-06-09T02:28:51Z

Sacramento County is holding hearings this week on proposed budget cuts to address a $180 million budget gap. The budget hearings are open to the public and will be held at the county Board of Supervisors’ chambers at 700 H St.

The proposed overall budget for the 2009/2010 fiscal year is $4.3 billion. Sacramento County’s general fund budget is $2.03 billion. The budget document explains that a large portion of the general fund consists of the county's general purpose funds. "All other funds in the county budget are financed with earmarked or restricted revenues," the document states.

A breakdown of the general fund is on page 9 of the budget’s introduction.

“We’re at a very challenging period of time where not only our revenues are down, but expenditures are up,” county spokesman Zeke Holst said.

The hearings begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday with an overview of the budget situation. County public safety budgets will be addressed at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The board will take up county social services funding on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Funding for several areas -- general government, municipal services, county assessor, retiree health and transient occupancy tax -- will be discussed Friday, starting at 9:30 a.m.

Indigent medical services will be addressed in a hearing at 2 p.m. June 11, and at a hearing at 2:15 p.m. June 16.

The county will make decisions on the proposed 2009/2010 budget next week. The board may adopt the proposed budget at 9:30 a.m. June 17.

Source: The Sacramento County budget document

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.