It's not surprising that there is a gap in the county's projected budget in the next fiscal year. Costs are going up and revenues are flat. No news there. What is astonishing is that there is an expected $9 million boost in pension contributions and the project initiated by the BOS to look at potential pension reforms a year ago (okay April 5th) has yielded nothing. Zero. Nada.

VCTA has offered several suggestions for savings to a system that is clearly out of line with the 19 other 37 Act counties and a few could have an immediate impact. As for the others, it would at least be reassuring to know that the BOS is thinking beyond the next election. The number of employees retiring with pensions over $100,000 has doubled in the last ten years. Without reform, this growth trend will continue. 

Since the County seems to be in a terminal dither on pension reform, here is some low hanging fruit for balancing the budget. In November, the Sheriff's contract is up. The 730 members of the Sheriff's union contribute only 2.5% of their pay (much less than the 6% paid toward social security by the private sector) with the County paying the 10.21% balance of the employee share for them, for a total 12.71% employee share of pension costs.

 

If the average Sheriff is paid $125,000 a year and he/she were required to pay the full 12.71% share of pension costs, it would save the County (730 x $125,000 x .21%) = $9.3 million vs a $7.6 million shortfall. Problem solved.

 

Add firefighters who also pay 2.5% towards pensions and you have some serious low - hanging fruit. Budget balanced with a surplus applied against reduced fees.

Managers are trying to close a gap of $7.6 million in the county government's projected budget in the next fiscal year with revenues stalled and costs rising.

 

That's the amount finance officials say they're short to provide the same level of services in law enforcement, human services, general government and other operations. While costs are going up by more than $9 million, general-purpose revenues to pay for them are rising by less than $2 million, according to a report presented this week to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

 

County Chief Financial Officer Paul Derse projects $316.7 million in general-purpose revenues for the 2012-13 fiscal year, a gain of a little over half a percent from the current year.

 

"When you're getting 90 percent of your money for general-purpose revenues from property taxes, and property taxes have been flat or down for three years, it doesn't give you a lot of room to grow," he said Wednesday. "If your revenues don't grow, your expenditures aren't going to grow."

 

General-purpose revenues provide a critical source of funding for the county's general fund budget of almost $875 million because county supervisors have considerable discretion over those dollars. The remainder of the budget comes from fees and state and federal tax dollars.

 

Ventura County government has gotten through the economic slowdown without major cuts in services, substantial layoffs or furloughs. But it is getting tougher for department heads to find savings, County Executive Officer Mike Powers said.

 

"They've been reduc

ing and reducing over the years, so the low-hanging fruit is pretty much gone," Powers told the supervisors.

 

Powers is looking to balance the 2012-13 budget by re-bidding contracts, boosting revenues and making performance improvements. He plans no substantial job cuts.

 

The target budget presented to the board presumes no across-the-board salary increases, a boost of $9 million in pension contributions, and departments' absorption of inflationary increases in the cost of doing business.

 

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