$3.1 Billion Budget Proposed For Alameda County

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA – Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi on Tuesday proposed a $3.1 billion budget for the new fiscal year beginning July 1 that's a 4.1 percent increase from the current budget.

The proposed budget has a $108.5 million funding gap, which is the difference between the cost of maintaining existing county programs and projected revenues, the largest such gap in several years.

Muranishi said she is proposing to close the funding gap through a combination of spending reductions, revenue increases and one-time strategic changes such as efficiency measures.

But Muranishi warned the county Board of Supervisors at her presentation Tuesday that balancing the budget by using a significant amount of one-time funds "will necessitate careful monitoring throughout the year to
ensure that expenditures remain within budget and estimated revenue is fully realized."

Muranishi also said, "There continues to be a considerable amount of uncertainty regarding potential federal cuts to safety net and public safety programs," as President Trump's proposed budget calls for significant
federal policy changes that she said call for "deep cuts across a range of critical public services."

In addition, Muranishi said proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act and to Medicaid "would have a devastating impact on both the county budget and the ability of county residents to access health care."

However, Muranishi said the budget will still include enough funding to allow the county to maintain its workforce of more than 9,600 full-time employees, provide mandated and essential services, meet its debt
service obligations and maintain its current level of infrastructure and capital funding.

Muranishi said Alameda County's financial status has benefited from moderate but slowing growth in the national and local economies over the past year and its unemployment rate of only 3.5 percent in April is half of what it was four years ago.

The county administrator said an increase in real estate market values led to a 7 percent rise in the assessment roll for the current fiscal year, which she said resulted in "much-needed property tax revenue for the county."

But Muranishi said the downside of higher home values and rents is that they reduce the stock of affordable housing and place additional strain on people who are paying a larger share of their lower incomes for
housing costs.

Muranishi said that because the economic recovery is now in its eighth year she fears that the economy may decline sometime in the near future.

She warned, "A dip in the economy that reduces property values and taxes and sales tax revenue will quickly increase the size of future budget gaps."

Muranishi said, "Unfortunately, that decline in the economy and vital discretionary revenue is now closer than ever."

The Board of Supervisors will hold public hearings on the proposed budget from June 26 through June 28 and will vote on it on June 30.

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