San Benito County making strides to overcome budget deficit
SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION) - San Benito County is taking steps to overcome a large deficit. When budget discussions began in April, the county faced a shortfall of over 6 million; now, more cuts are needed.
The board stated revenue sources have not kept up with rising expenses, especially on staff pay increases.
A major strategy to cut costs is a new vacancy budget. That means there would be cuts made to all unfunded vacant positions, leaving the door open for more cuts if there are more long-term vacancies.
"If there's not going to be enough staff, are we working with departments on what staff that could be eliminated versus no eliminated. To me, it's not just about staff, it's about contracts and how much money are we spending on service and are we getting services out of theses contracts that we need," San Benito County District 4 supervisor Angela Curro said.
The county's next budget hearing is planned for June 9, with a final budget expected to be legally adopted in September.
