Board Ends Funding for UCR Med School, Backs Increases for Public Safety

To plug financial gaps in the 2015-16 fiscal year budget and beyond, the Board of Supervisors on Monday terminated decade-long funding commitments to the UC Riverside School of Medicine and tentatively approved increased appropriations for Riverside County public safety agencies.

The board reached consensus during a budget workshop at the County Administrative Center in downtown Riverside.

“It is clear using one-time funding will be unavoidable to close this fiscal year and cover the projected gap next fiscal year,” said county Chief Executive Officer Jay Orr. “I recognize this is unsustainable and (that) ongoing solutions will be necessary to bring the budget into structural balance.”

According to an Executive Office report prepared for the workshop, county agencies are seeking $127 million in excess of the “target levels” set to keep the books balanced going into 2015-16. Most of that overage stems from public safety agencies’ needs, primarily the sheriff’s department, according to county officials.

The Riverside County Regional Medical Center continues to struggle with red tape, and that prompted the board to rescind an April 2012 agreement with UCR to disburse $1.5 million annually in support of the campus’s medical school, which opened in the fall of 2013.

The Executive Office reasoned -- and the supervisors agreed -- that with funding secured from the state and other sources, the medical school’s allotment from the county was no longer critical. The money, however, is vital to cover the cost of equipment upgrades and other expenses tied to RCRMC. The public hospital is emerging from a debt load once estimated at $100 million.

Thanks to an unexpected bump in property tax receipts and carry-over money from the previous fiscal year, the county will net an additional $24.1 million in general fund income before the end of the current fiscal year, according to the report.

Some of the new revenue will pay for adjustments to the sheriff’s, district attorney’s, fire chief’s and public defender’s budgets.

Based on a recommendation from the Executive Office, the board tentatively approved allocating roughly $15 million to help cover a projected year-end shortfall in the sheriff’s budget totaling $46 million. According to officials, higher personnel costs, expenses tied to the future East County Detention Center in Indio and fleet maintenance obligations were to blame for deepening the agency’s financial hole.

The board similarly made provisions to cover half of the District Attorney’s Office’s $5.9 million revenue gap, which D.A. Mike Hestrin recently announced had been whittled down from the $7.5 million in red ink predicted in January.

Supervisors also made room for a $2 million commitment to slash the fire department’s roughly $4 million deficit and set aside $1.2 million to bolster the Office of the Public Defender’s ledger.

The board tentatively authorized additional appropriations for the Office of the Registrar of Voters, the Department of Animal Services and for programs intended to benefit the Temecula Valley Wine Country and the unincorporated community of Cabazon.

A final hearing on the county’s proposed 2015-16 budget is scheduled for June 15.