The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted today to approve the Recommended Budget for the Fiscal Year 2016-17. The $3.9 billion spending plan allows the County to operate until the Adopted or “final” budget is completed and approved in September.
“Overall, we remain in good fiscal shape,” said Board Chair Roberta MacGlashan, Supervisor for District 4. “By watching our costs and carefully using the increased revenue from the recovering economy, we were not only able to maintain our current service levels but strategically add to some key programs to help our constituents.”
Recent investments in Sacramento County were maintained, including:
- Initiatives to address homelessness such as Rapid Rehousing, the Winter Shelter program, and the creation of a Director of Homeless Initiatives position;
- Intelligence-led policing model in the Sheriff’s Office;
- Rebalancing the Mental Health Crisis System to reduce reliance on emergency rooms and ensure individuals experiencing a mental health crisis receive the best treatment possible in the most appropriate setting;
- The Healthy Partners Program that provides healthcare services to undocumented immigrants;
- Implementation of a strategic plan to reduce disproportionate African-American child deaths through community-based contracts and targeted staffing in Child Protective Services, Public Health, and Probation;
- The Title IV-E foster care waiver pilot program, providing Child Protective Services and Probation with federal funding and flexibility to reduce cost and improve outcomes for foster care youth over a five-year period. This includes $1.8 million to expand the Child Abuse Prevention Center’s Birth and Beyond program;
- A Financial Abuse Unit in the Department of Health and Human Service’s Adult Protective Services;
- Community initiatives such as increasing code enforcement and graffiti abatement activities, enhancing the 311 Call Program so residents can report neighborhood concerns to County and get information with one phone call, and establishing a Community Prosecution Unit in the District Attorney’s Office;
- Animal care initiatives that focus on improving animal care, increasing spay/neuter services; and increasing the Animal Shelter’s live release rate;
- Efforts to reduce fire danger and illegal camping in the County’s Regional Parks.
“We are holding steady on a good, solid, balanced budget while adding minimal growth,” added County Executive Nav Gill. “We’ll be back in September to true-up the year-end balances and submit our annual Adopted Budget.”
The Board allocated additional funds to support programs including:
- $700,000 - Birth and Beyond – a resource center that provides prenatal and medical care, suicide prevention and child abuse prevention services, and psychiatry and counseling for families and children.
- $500,000 - Residential Drug Treatment and Substance Abuse Treatment program.
- $124,672 - Addition of a Community Prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office to address issues such as crime prevention, public safety and health matters. Prosecutors work in neighborhoods creating partnerships with citizens, law enforcement, community groups, and businesses to proactively address quality of life issues including blight, prostitution, graffiti, and homelessness. (Half of this position will be paid for by the City of Rancho Cordova).
- $320,000 - Additional staffing for Jail ADA (access for people with disabilities) compliance issues.
- $182,000 - Staffing for Sheriff’s Crime & Intelligence Unit to gather and analyze crime data to better use resources in the field.
- $150,000 - Code Enforcement staffing to support Illegal Dumping Program to help reduce the incidence of illegal dumping of trash and refuse in the unincorporated County.
- $780,621 - Increased staffing to support the increase in activity in building permit and plan review sections in the unincorporated County.
- $2,250,000 -Mental health services to Medi-Cal eligible children, based on new direction from the State.
- $107,744 - Mobile Mental Health Crisis Support Team to provide timely crisis intervention when an individual experience a mental health crisis comes to the attention of law enforcement.
- $959,092 - Staffing to handle additional In Home Supportive Services needs (IHSS), the program that pays caregivers in people’s homes, allowing them to stay in their homes rather than the hospital or care facility.
- $13,200 - Therapeutic Recreation Services–to provide recreation and leisure services individuals with developmental disabilities living in Sacramento County.
- $238,524 - Mattress Disposal Program - allows customers to drop off mattresses and box springs at the County’s Waste Management and Recycling locations at no charge; and Stormwater Management program to manage runoff from the County’s landfill locations and comply with regulations.
The complete set of documents and details can be found at the Office of Financial Management’s website. Board actions will be posted to the site within two days.