Santa Clara County budget proposal would cut jobs to remedy $120 million deficit

Santa Clara County has released an $11.2 billion budget proposal that wrestles with a $120 million deficit and a potential economic downturn by turning to one of its costliest annual expenses: the county’s employees.

The final budget recommendation, a more than 600-page document, is the last for outgoing county executive Jeff Smith, who took on the role in the 2009-10 fiscal year when the budget was $4.3 billion and county employees totaled 14,000. Now there are 22,205.

To bridge the massive financial gap, Smith and county counsel James Williams — the incoming county executive — have recommended cutting nearly 20% of the county’s vacant positions, a total of more than 650 jobs, and other ongoing cost reductions.

“This will put us on better footing for the coming fiscal years, even if the road ahead will still be challenging,” Williams wrote in his budget message.

The proposal has alarmed some county workers, especially those working in health care, as a bulk of the vacant positions recommended for deletion are in the Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system.

Riko Mendez, chief elected officer of the employee union, SEIU Local 521, which represents 12,000 county workers, denounced the budget, saying a “chronic staffing crisis is hindering county workers from providing adequate service and lifesaving care for our community.”

The proposed county budget “directly ignores the priorities set forth by the elected board and exacerbates the growing vacancy woes across all county departments,” Mendez said. The cuts send “a message to workers and residents that the county is complacent in enabling growing service wait times and unsafe working conditions while contributing to a mass exodus of essential workers.”

A statement added to the budget said that the county will retain positions that have been filled since the recommendation was created on March 19 “and recommend alternative ongoing budget solutions to address the structural deficit.”

In his budget message, Smith described this year’s recommended budget as a “transitional year plan.” He said revenues from property taxes aren’t increasing along with costs, and revenue from federal and state grants are “becoming unreliable.”

While the county executive was able to balance this year’s budget with one-time funds and the deletion of vacant positions, next year is expected to be more difficult, according to Smith’s budget message.

A five-year general fund forecast predicts that there will be an operating deficit in the 2024-25 fiscal year that will continue in the following three years that could possibly result in a $194 million deficit in 2025-26.

The county will hold budget workshops next week to gather feedback on the proposal and have several hearings in mid-June, with the final hearing happening June 15.