Inyo Board approves 2014-2015 budget
CAO Kevin Carunchio warns that next year’s budget may be even more challenging.
Having a bucket of iced water poured over your head was probably a relief from the months of the sometimes scorching criticism that the Inyo County Board of Supervisors has endured from their constituents as they worked towards finalizing the County’s 2014-2015 Budget. Before starting their regular meeting last week, the five County District Supervisors participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on the lawn of the courthouse in Independence (see Vane’s story in last week’s paper).
Many felt that the Supervisors created a problem and then placed the County in a position of having to look for a solution when they approved equity and cost-of-living raises at the end of last year for all County employees.
The raises added close to $2 million to a structural deficit which already existed to the tune of several million dollars.
Furthermore, critics accused the Board of putting the interests of public employees and unions before that of the taxpayers and voters that elected them to office.
In their defense, the Supervisors’ responded that they only did what was “fair,” as County employees had not received any raises for several years and it was in the public’s interest that the County, as an employer, be able to retain good employees.
As part of a creative solution to budgetary woes, Inyo CAO Kevin Carunchio and the Board launched a restructuring program called Service Redesign, which created nearly $666,000 in savings through consolidation of services, increases of some fees, and greater efficiencies in service delivery. The program is ongoing and many of the more controversial changes proposed involving the library, museum, Senior Programs, and the Community Grants Program were largely avoided by compromise in the current budget.
At the Tuesday, Sept. 9 meeting, the Supervisors unanimously approved the 2014-2015 Inyo County Budget of $88 million, the largest in its history on revenue of $84 million.
To be balanced, the budget relies on $2,980,817 in General Fund Balance, certified by Auditor Controller Amy Shepard, which is left over from last year’s 2013-2014 budget and other actions such as Operating Transfers to cover the shortfall.
According to Carunchio, this final 2014-2015 budget represents a 25 percent reduction, or nearly a $1,000,000 decrease in the size of the structural deficit in the County’s General Fund Budget compared to Fiscal Year 2013-2014. Rather than be sanguine about the future, he cautioned the Board that, although the “size of the structural deficit in the County’s General Fund Budget is as small as it has been in nine years, trends first identified in last year’s Budget continue to suggest that the methods used to balance this year’s Budget cannot be sustained.
“The General Fund Balance will continue to get smaller and smaller in the near future,” he said.
According to the CAO’s budget message, adding to the pressure on future budgets is the fact that public safety costs are growing faster than, or at the expense of, reductions in other General Fund services. This is at a time when the General Fund Budget is relying on less Fund Balance, and when Non-General Fund budgets appear to be increasing use of their fund balances and need to be carefully monitored. Carunchio offered the example of the Water Department, which has drawn down its fund balance from $782,046 to $383,847 since 2012.
Then there is the specter of personnel costs, which are still expected to increase by more than $1 million in next year’s Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Budget as a result the Supervisors’ approval of equity and cost of living raises in late 2013.
In a message sent to The Sheet following the budget approval, Carunchio said, “Developing a County Budget is a complex process that takes a lot of work and coordination from a lot of talented people across all departments; especially to get a handle on the fiscal challenges the County is facing. Cutting the structural deficit by 25 percent compared to last year would not have been possible otherwise.”
The CAO went on to say that “I particularly want to recognize the efforts of the budget team? Kelley Williams, Denelle Carrington, Pam Foster, and Amy Shepard– and thank them. This new team had not worked together before and was assembled late in the process. They came together as a unit, assisted and analyzed the departments’ budget work, and did a fantastic job of pulling everything together. I’m looking forward to working with them on next year’s budget (2015-2016), which we will start work on next week.”
The final budget approved by the Board of Supervisors includes an additional $548,972 over Carunchio’s recommended budget proposed last month, which was possible given an extra $500,000 balance in last year’s budget that had not been certified. That money was applied by the Supervisors to the County’s Grants-in-Support Program, Community Project Sponsorship Program, OPEB Trust Fund, which supports retiree health care costs, and the General Reserves Budget.
What’s next? Work begins on the 2015-2016 Inyo County Budget, which promises to be even more challenging.
