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Wednesday, 03 June 2009 |
 Amador County – County Administrative Officer Terri Daly gave a dire report on the status of the 2009-2010 county budget and deficit during the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. “It’s as bad as you can possibly imagine, and then ten times worse,” said Daly, referring to opinions she gathered at a recent CSAC Legislative Conference. “So far I’m happy to report that the vast majority of (Amador County) Departments are very, very conservative with their money,” she said. Even then, Amador County is now facing an approximate $2.6 million deficit. Daly said that because of mandated expenditures, “we will have to dip into the General Fund for the first time ever.” She said the only “pleasant surprise” is that the estimated bid of over $2 million to close the Amador County landfill came in closer to $775,000. That leaves a significant balance, but its up to Daly to see if there’s any other costs involved. Even then she warned that the landfill was still under notice of violation from three regulatory industries. No fines have been levied thus far. Of the not so pleasant surprises, Daly anticipates next year’s social services budget could be “out of whack” by close to $2 million. To make matters worse, the state has proposed borrowing from local property taxes as just one of many measures to deal with its $24.3 billion deficit. The state has also discussed cutting out Williamson Act subvention funds and cutting some programs altogether. “I’m sure that whatever the state does to balance its budget, it will hit us,” Daly said, adding: “I anticipate that whatever the state does, it means more layoffs for us.” Supervisor Brian Oneto said he agreed with Daly. “I like keeping (our reserves) for a rainy day, but I think that rainy day is here,” he said. While discussing the state’s budget negotiations, Supervisor Louis Boitano said “I guess they can’t figure it out, but when they’re in a hole they have to stop digging.” Daly said that from her discussions with representatives in other counties, things will never be the same. “(In the future) we have to figure out how to run our government differently,” she said. Story by Alex Lane
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