Supervisor candidates Bernard C. Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas discuss L.A. County's financial picture
The Times has asked the two major candidates competing to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke about some key issues in the 2nd Supervisorial District, which stretches from Mar Vista through South Los Angeles and into Compton and Carson.
Today, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) offer their take on the county's financial picture.
This is the last in a series before Tuesday's election.
County officials have proposed a $21.9-billion budget for the coming fiscal year that is 2.61% lower than the current budget but calls for no layoffs or major program cuts. If threatened reductions in state and federal funds require big reductions in county spending, where would you cut, and what services should get priority?
Parks: There is a common misperception that the county, through its annual budget, has discretionary control over most of its revenues and expenditures. In fact, that is not the case. Of the county's $21.9-billion budget, only 28% of the funding is locally generated, and only 17% of the total budget is discretionary. Eighty-three percent of the county's expenditures are mandated or contractually required, mainly by state and federal programs the county administers.
More often than not, the state and federal mandates are not fully funded; the county backfills with local resources to make up the difference where it can with respect to administrative costs. It does not make up the difference when there is a reduction in benefits.
County programs ranging from substance abuse and crime prevention programs to Medi-Cal-provider rates suffered a loss of $25.9 million when the governor and Legislature tried to balance the state's current-year deficit in February. The governor's proposal to balance next year's budget would reduce the county's funds by an additional $332 million, with most of his proposals resulting in reduced funding and eligibility for social service programs.
In most instances, the actual and proposed reductions adversely affect the availability, extent or recipient of the service, the county's role for the most part being the conduit for the funds.
At the federal level, the county faces a loss of $240 million in Medicaid revenue. The president's proposed budget includes undetermined but substantial reductions to health, community development, justice, homeland security and social programs administered by the county.
