The Morning Report
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The San Diego Union-Tribune, a local newspaper, has a bit of interesting context about the county’s financial situation today. The county is considering laying off employees to cope with declining revenue.
Reporter Craig Gustafson writes:
In a video message today to the county’s 18,000-plus employees, Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard warned “actual layoffs will be necessary” to close a budget gap caused by the slumping economy.
At the same time the county is cutting, the supervisors that oversee operations continuing giving out grants to local community groups — money the supervisors describe as coming from surplus revenue.
Why give out surplus revenue when there’s no surplus? The supes say it’s because there was a surplus when they approved their budget last year.
They’re sticking to their budget when it allows them to give out grants that critics say are used to curry campaign support.
But they’re not sticking to their budget when they have to make adjustments to cut services or eliminate staff.