The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a $24.53-billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, its first in four years without significant cuts in public services.
The budget calls for about $180 million more in spending compared with the current fiscal year and keeps departments’ funds intact – a reversal from the last four years when departments endured an average of 17 percent in cuts, and some more than 30 percent in cuts, totaling more than $360 million.
The budget does not include layoffs or furloughs for county employees, whose unions agreed again to forgo raises.
“One of the reasons the county has not seen the level of fiscal crisis that the city of Los Angeles has is our partnership with the unions, who have agreed to no raises for four years in a row,” Supervisor Michael Antonovich said.
“Also, the board does not use one-time revenue for ongoing program costs,” he added.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said, “The county is in a unique budgetary position because of the extraordinary fiscal prudence exercised by the board over a period of decades.”
County chief executive officer Bill Fujioka expressed relief about having a much smaller deficit to close than in previous years.
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