Well we can always hope that the voters reject the tax extension. Oh wait this is California we are talking about!
They have positioned it so there will be enormous pressure on the Repubs. to cave.
They have already passed the legislation sending the “non-non-non” state prisoners back to the counties. Or little rural county will get 70-100 sent back. Their recidivism rate is about 70%. Our total jail capacity is only 107 and it is already full all the time with felons. (Misdemeanors have work parties, ankle bracelet monitoring or wait for nine months to serve their sentence.) Our probation officers are already monitoring about 500 people each.
Without the passage of the tax portion, there will be no COPS grants or rural sheriff garnts that currently help to fund the department. Currently it costs $143 a day to jail someone. If the state gets the funds to pay the counties, it is only about $77 per person. [Note, fewer funds to the county General Fund, more responsibility.]
At the same time, they have passed on to the counties a greater share of the cost of paying welfare entitlements. [Note: no funds to the County more fiscal responsibility.]
At the very same time, lower sales and property tax revenues, ewlimination of Williamson Act subventions and higher insurance and retirement costs have already created a $2 million shortfall in the General Fund for next year, necessitating further layoffs in sheriff’s deputies, probation officers, the D.A. etc. (We have already layed off 25% of our General Fund employess.)
This is a recipe for dangerous fiscal disaster for many California Counties.