Week of June 7th 2021 - Episode 2 - Shasta County Budget

This is a breakdown of the 2021/2022 Fiscal year budget for Shasta County. I explain how the county gets it's money, and how it's spent.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to The Breakdown with Benjamin Nowain for the week of June 7, 2021.

This is the second week of The Breakdown, and there’s a lot of information to parse through this week. So, let’s get right into the weekly.

On Monday, June 7th, District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett made a statement that her office had concluded the investigations of allegations of fraud made towards Recall Shasta. This is related to the gathering of signatures for filing the notices of intent to recall members of the Board of Supervisors. The findings have now been referred to the Secretary of State.

At the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, June 8th, the board voted 4-1 to censure Supervisor Leonard Moty of District 2 due to a grand jury's conclusion that he committed misfeasance during the events of the Carr Fire in 2018. The lone dissenting vote was from Patrick Jones of District 4, as he disagreed with a portion of the board's official response to the grand jury report.

On Friday, June 11th, Red, White, and Blueprint cast member Carlos Zapata did not appear at a court hearing to address the temporary restraining order against him. His legal counsel appeared instead, stating that Carlos was out of town on vacation. The temporary restraining order is still in effect.

And now, to the breakdown.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about how local government spends our taxpayer dollars, so let’s break it down. This will be a high-level overview, but since I hear about it frequently, I think it’s important to discuss.

The 2021-2022 Shasta County Budget

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors approved the 2021-2022 fiscal year budget resolution on June 8th. The county budget for this year is estimated at $599 million, which represents a 5.35% increase from the previous fiscal year’s adopted budget. The general fund makes up 33% of the budget, amounting to an estimated $198 million.

At first glance, the budget appears to be three times larger than the 2020-2021 fiscal year budget. However, it’s important to note that for this fiscal year, public safety has been rolled into the general fund. This brings Shasta County in line with how other counties manage this funding source. Rather than paying out to public safety from the general fund, it is now managed directly within that funding stream.

A significant portion of the general fund comes from property taxes. About 12.46% of each tax dollar goes into the general fund. It’s also important to understand that the county cannot spend this money in any way it likes. The majority of these funds are dedicated to public safety. As shown in the budget, the top two allocations of your tax dollars are for the sheriff and the jail.

A subset of the general fund can be spent on discretionary items, but it’s relatively small in relation to the overall budget. At roughly $66.7 million, any wish list items that aren’t backed by grants or other funding streams must come out of this discretionary budget.

Special Revenue and Restricted Funds

Special revenue, which totals nearly $314 million (52.37% of the budget), is funded by sources such as sales tax, vehicle license fees, and state and federal grants. These funds are highly restricted in how they can be used, and the county cannot reallocate them for other purposes. These funding streams must be spent on specific services like social services, mental health, public health, and roads.

A good example is the CARES Act funding of approximately $18 million that Shasta County received for COVID-19 relief. The county could only access these funds if they were used for specific purposes dictated by the federal government.

Some have raised concerns that only 22% of this funding—around $4 million—was given to businesses, while the majority went to the county itself. However, it’s important to understand that these funds weren’t intended to be used solely for business support. In fact, Shasta County was more generous with business support than many other counties, with 22% being a relatively high allocation for this purpose.

Unfunded CalPERS Liability

Another key issue is Shasta County’s unfunded liability for CalPERS retirement. While the county is currently underfunded, some detractors have exaggerated the severity of the situation. Shasta County is 71% funded, with an unfunded liability of roughly $266 million. This is actually average for counties across California.

That’s not to say it isn’t a concern, but claims of extreme under-funding are largely being used for political gain.

Where Your Tax Dollars Go

If you’re interested in seeing where your tax dollars have been allocated over the past three fiscal years, I encourage you to check out the Citizens Report, conducted yearly by our county auditor.

And that’s The Breakdown for the week of June 7th, 2021.