The LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $24.5 billion budget Tuesday for fiscal year 2012-13, a move that represents a $150 million increase from the 2011-12 fiscal budget and, for the first time in four years, no significant cuts to public services.
The final budget, presented to the board Tuesday by county CEO William Fujioka, is scheduled to go into effect July 1, when the fiscal year 2012-13 will begin.
The final budget asked for roughly $720 million more than the proposed budget Fujioka submitted last April -- a revised amount due in part to changes in revenue projections, carryover funding for critical projects and "other ministerial adjustments," according to a Monday memo from Fujioka (PDF).
The recommended changes -- which spokesman David Sommers said had all been approved by the Board of Supervisors -- would close a projected $75.8 million budget gap without requiring "departmental curtailments or reductions," the memo stated. In addition, the proposal would not dip into the County's reserves, according to the memo.
"The County has weathered an extraordinary fiscal journey over the last four years," Fujioka said in an April press release (PDF).
In the memo, Fujioka requested $18.89 billion for general funding and $5.6 billion for "special funds," an increase of approximately $665 million and $8.3 million, respectively, from the proposed budget he submitted two months ago.
Union members for in-home caregivers praised the budget after their aggressive push to lobby legislators for a 65-cent wage hike made its way into the final report.
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"I feel like our members now have a chance to get a living wage, and that's all they wanted," Laphonza Butler, president of the SEIU United Long Term Care Workers' Union, told the Contra Costa Times on Tuesday.
The board allocated $21.5 million to increase in-home caregivers' wages from $9 per hour to $9.65.
Though the board itself does not have authority to increase caretaker wagers, its decision to allocate funding for the effort will give union members more leverage when negotiating the wage hike with the Personal Assistance Services Council, the organization responsible for in-home support services, according to the Times.
The approved budget will also allow Fujioka to work with the Auditor-Controller to cancel purchases of non-essential services, supplies and capital assets.
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