Thread: Ca - Sacramento County supervisors OK deep budget cuts

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Sacramento County supervisors OK deep budget cuts
ShareThisBy Robert Lewis
rlewis@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 | Page 5B
Undocumented immigrants no longer will be able to receive medical care in Sacramento County clinics, two health clinics that serve the poor will close, and services with various mental health contractors will be terminated.

Those are a few of the deep cuts the Board of Supervisors approved Wednesday in an effort to close a $55 million general fund shortfall in the fiscal year ending June 30.

The supervisors approved $2.4 million in cuts to the Department of Health Services, and $3.8 million in cuts to the Mental Health Division.

"I didn't come back to work to do this," said Jim Hunt, the acting head of the Countywide Services Agency who has been filling in since Penelope Clarke retired at the end of December. "If we have to make reductions, sooner is better than later."

The board was generally united on the cuts, except for the move to stop providing medical care to undocumented immigrants at county clinics.

Supervisor Roger Dickinson warned that such a move would inevitably deny care to some people who qualified for it and lead to a higher societal cost as people get sicker and end up in emergency rooms.

"It seems to me that's counterproductive," Dickinson said.

Supervisor Jimmie Yee joined Dickinson in trying to get the item removed from the broader list of cuts, but they were outvoted by Supervisors Susan Peters, Roberta MacGlashan and Don Nottoli.

After the meeting, MacGlashan said in a prepared statement: "Sacramento County simply cannot afford a discretionary program that specifically provides free, non-emergency health services to citizens of other countries."

County officials told the board that eliminating services to undocumented immigrants would save $2.4 million a year.

The savings makes an assumption that 8 percent of the county's medically indigent services population is undocumented. No county officials could say where that assumption originates.

Bruce Wagstaff, head of the Department of Human Assistance, said it would cost an additional $500,000 a year just to determine whether the patient is undocumented.

While the cuts decimated much of the mental health system and crippled parts of the public health system, they are just the beginning, officials said.

In mid-March, the county will shift its attention to the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, in which the shortfall could top $100 million.

Just to address the current year's deficit, the supervisors on Wednesday authorized borrowing $17.3 million from the Municipal Services Agency's internal service for the general fund, which pays for day-to-day operating costs.

Officials have identified an additional $38.6 million that is available to borrow, Nav Gill, the county's chief operations officer, told the board.

That is money that will need to be repaid from the general fund in the next five years. The move effectively pushes some tough decisions to the next budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

"We're going to have substantial cuts next year," County Executive Terry Schutten said.

Supervisors unanimously approved borrowing that money to cover the current fiscal year's deficit. Nottoli said it would cushion the impact of the cuts that will ultimately need to be made.

"I no way can subscribe to the approach we take a full year's reduction in the last quarter of the year," Nottoli said.

The board will look to make additional cuts when it meets March 3. At that time the supervisors will look to trim $7.5 million from various departments.

They will also look at possible cuts to public safety. The Sheriff's Department has a shortfall of $10.8 million while the probation department and the District Attorney's Office are short $2.6 million and $1.7 million, respectively.

The county could use some of the money from the interfund transfer to minimize cuts to those departments.

Supervisors will also consider changes to their vehicle fleet, which it is maintaining at a cost of $27 million a year.

The county has 2,940 vehicles in its light fleet, more than double the 1,430 the county had in 2001, according to a report supervisors reviewed at Wednesday's meeting.

The report says that one in three county cars is a take-home vehicle – the highest ratio of 30 California counties surveyed.

The Sheriff's Department has 889 vehicles, including 513 take-home cars. The District Attorney's Office has 99, including 63 take-home cars, according to the report. The DA's office says that number has changed and the department now has 81 vehicles, including 60 take-home cars.

County officials are recommending a number of changes to the vehicle policy, including mileage limits and possibly making workers pay for gas related to their commute.

"It raised my eyes to see we have a vehicle for every four employees," Dickinson said. "That to me is an astonishing figure. … It's also about how we run our operation."

The board will discuss these and other cuts at the March 3 meeting.

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1618822.html

These are baby steps in the right direction.

I hope this catches on and at least in conservative counties (what few there are) they also take action. I am skeptical though and awaiting to hear from our freinds the ACLU! They're the ones who destroyed this state by always overturning anti-illegal legislation. Now where are they? Why don't they pay for these people! OHHHH I get so mad.

Finally someone is realizing they are going to have to start making cuts and actually making some that they should not be paying for in the first place

Bruce Wagstaff, head of the Department of Human Assistance, said it would cost an additional $500,000 a year just to determine whether the patient is undocumented.

Somehow I have a hard time believing this statement! Perhaps they could start by simply asking patients to produce valid state identification before they can receive any treatment! That would weed out most of the illegals right off the bat! How hard would that be?

After the meeting, MacGlashan said in a prepared statement: "Sacramento County simply cannot afford a discretionary program that specifically provides free, non-emergency health services to citizens of other countries."

Finally! Someone in a position of leadership in this state has the courage to do the right thing! Lets hope this is the first step in a long line of budget cuts that target illegal invaders and their out of control leeching off the tax payers of this state!

Feb 14, 2009
Sacramento Cuts Free Health Care For Illegal Immigrants

Struggling with a $55 million budget deficit, a northern California county became the state’s first to eliminate free non-urgent health care for illegal immigrants and a civil rights group was quick to label the move unconstitutional.

Like many counties throughout California, Sacramento’s public clinics offer illegal aliens free medical care at an annual cost of millions of dollars. Sacramento County had five such clinics but two were closed as a result of the budget crunch and the remaining three will check for the immigration status of all patients.

The move, approved 3-2 by the Board of Supervisors, is expected to save the ailing county about $2.4 million dollars. With a population of around 1.4 million, Sacramento County is California’s prime agricultural region which for years has benefited from the cheap labor of illegal immigrants and lax enforcement of immigration laws.

A substantial chunk of the Golden State’s estimated 3 million illegal immigrants live in the region and benefit from the county’s 16 public school districts, generous medical care and an array of other taxpayer-financed benefits.

Providing free medical care for illegal immigrants has consistently been one of the state’s largest expenses, an annual cost of $775 million according to a recent news reportwhich cited a legislative analysis. California also spends $4 billion a year to educate illegal aliens, $970 million to incarcerate them and about $500 million on other welfare benefits.

To say it’s unconstitutional to slash these exorbitant programs in an effort to help law-abiding, tax-paying residents is absurd. In a letter to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the chairman of a well-known civil rights group asserts that denying illegal immigrants publicly-funded medical services actually violates the Fourteenth Amendmentto the U.S. Constitution, which provides that no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.

www.judicialwatch.org

Good start!!!!