Posted on 04/19/2007 7:53:03 AM PDT by SmithL
-- Contra Costa County plans to spend no money this coming fiscal year on its skyrocketing future retiree health care bills, further increasing an obligation that now stands at $2.6 billion.
The decision came Tuesday as the Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval to the county's 2007-08 budget, earmarking $33 million to pay for a year's worth of health care services guaranteed to retired county employees. But that amount comes up far short of the $227 million that a county consultant determined should be set aside to close the health care gap in the coming decades.
"We can't just throw money at it, because that has to come out of other programs," said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Mary Piepho of Discovery Bay. "Which pegs do you use to plug the holes? We need more information on how to solve this, and we'll have a plan within the next six months."
Time is of the essence for supervisors to act, said Kris Hunt, executive director of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association.
"The longer they wait to do something, the more drastic it gets," she said. "There are no good outcomes for waiting. There will need to be a combination of reduced benefits and reduced services."
If supervisors continue to "pay as you go" -- not making budget cuts or finding increased revenues to fund health care -- the county's liability will grow to $4 billion by 2013, according to a county consultant.
Soaring health care costs combined with public employees retiring earlier and Advertisement living longer are driving up the price of retiree medical expenses in counties across the state.
But Contra Costa finds itself in an especially troubling situation because for decades it has promised top-notch benefits to its employees. Its $2.6 billion obligation to current and future retirees is at the same level as five bigger California counties -- Alameda, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento and San Diego -- combined.
Some of the solutions to help drive down this cost, according to a county consultant's report, include not providing retirement health benefits to employees currently younger than 40 or management and nonunion employees.
Supervisors plan to formally approve the 2007-08 budget May 1. For a second consecutive year, the proposed budget is balanced without having to tap into reserves. Last year, the Board of Supervisors made $20 million of budget reductions, closing three outpatient pharmacies and cutting programs in health and social services.
Supervisors on Tuesday supported County Administrator John Cullen's recommendation for no planned layoffs in the upcoming fiscal year. However, he warned that layoffs in the Public Defender's Office could be a possibility since it recently lost a Superior Court contract to represent poor families in dependency cases, where children often are removed from custody of a parent and placed in foster or group homes.
Public Defender David Coleman said he is hopeful the Superior Court will reconsider the contract, but if not, his office probably could absorb the cuts in the coming years through attrition. While the current contract runs out June 30, public defenders will continue to represent their current clients in dependency cases.
The county's upcoming budget also increases projected vacancies in the Sheriff's Department, essentially taking away funding for 16 sworn positions.
Sheriff Warren Rupf told supervisors that such a move "sends the wrong message on our commitment to public safety. The (residents) are protected as well as we can. But each year we get complaints from communities about slow response times. This is a high priority."
Supervisor John Gioia of Richmond said effects will not be that noticeable.
"Every year you say, 'If we approve this budget, it will have dire consequences,'" he told the sheriff. "The sky hasn't fallen yet. You've been able to make the budget work, and people in Contra Costa County are safe because of that."
from wiki “As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 948,816.”
so all they have to do is assess a 2,600 dollar per person tax and they can pay off the 2.6 billion, no problem.
It’s astounding/sarc to me how, in California city after city, mid-level bureaucrats have voted themselves these fat pensions. Sure, accounts payable clerks deserve the same kind of pensions that cops & firemen deserve. Oh yeah, very risky work with the paper cuts and all. And the result is that these cities have staggering pension obligations that are inevitably taken out of the hides of the peeps.
Any idea why this office lost the contract? Are the public defenders in Contra Costa County not good enough?
-PJ
Aw c’mon. You won’t mind delaying your own retirement by 10 or 15 year to pay the extra taxes so your friendly neighborhood gobbermint employee can retire at 52, do you?. What’s so bad about dragging your butt into work everyday while he’s out golfing? /sarc
Government promises are made to be broken. ;)
There's no good reason for Contra Costa County to be as dysfunctional as it is. I live here for now, but I would never want to to be a homeowner and be faced with the forthcoming, unending succession of "special assessments".
Yeah especially since those firemen and cops can retire after putting in only 20 years instead of 30 like everybody else.
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