Recession continues to hurt county budget
Although the recession was officially declared over in 2009, Tehama County general fund revenues have been slow to rebound, Tehama County Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin said during a recent mid-year budget review by the Board of Supervisors.
The county's general budget is very closely balanced, but exact numbers won't be known until the end of the fiscal year in June, said Louis Jarvis, administrative staff analyst.
"When the economy exploded between 2004 to 2007, our Board of Supervisors realized that such growth was unsustainable and didn't agree to big spending, instead taking a conservative approach that has proven to work well for this county," Jarvis said.
He explained that when the economy started to drop fast, Tehama County was able to keep expenditures aligned with revenues to the most part.
"That exercise in conservative spending is paying off now," Jarvis said.
He said the actual general fund revenues and expenditures appear to be more closely balanced now than during any fiscal year since the recession began in late 2007.
According to the report, although general fund revenue collections have increased over the past two years, the amount is still nearly $2 million below the 2006-07 fiscal year.
At the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year, the Tehama County general fund revenues were $28.6 million and expenditures were $29 million, the county reported.
"Local and state revenues are generally tracking the levels anticipated at final budget adoption, as are countywide expenditures," Jarvis said.
Mid-year 2011-12 overall adjustments requested for all departments came to $378,784 in expenditures and $400,387 in revenues to the adopted budget of $123 million.
The board approved these minor adjustments to the budget, which county administration believes will not adversely impact the fund balance carryover at the end of the fiscal year.
Two factors were discussed that could impact the budget in the coming year - an ongoing annual trend of 5 to 10 percent reduction in countywide property tax valuations, and possible increases in county contributions to the CalPERs retirement program.
