The Abridged version:
- Twenty-six people will lose their jobs as Yolo County contends with an ongoing budget deficit.
- The layoffs are in addition to the elimination of vacant positions and reduced contracts and services.
- Most of the people losing their jobs work in the county Health and Human Services Agency.
Twenty-six people will lose their jobs as Yolo County works to close a $35 million budget gap in its general fund.
The layoffs are part of a package of cuts brought before county supervisors during their budget hearing Tuesday, with more cuts made to contracts, services and vacant positions.
“Those decisions and recommendations do not come lightly,” said county administrator Michael Webb. “We are going to, in fact, be doing less with less.”
Most of the affected people are now employed in the county’s Health and Human Services Agency, which provides support services and benefits to eligible residents.
Solving a deficit
Yolo County has been contending with a structural budget deficit for years, meaning expenses have outpaced revenues at a growing rate.
Officials have relied heavily on reserves or one-time funding sources to balance the budget each year until now. But those funds will eventually run out, especially as federal and state funding constricts, and the county’s property tax returns remain among the lowest in the region.
“This is not a blip on the radar,” Webb said.
While the county has discussed options for raising revenue and recently approved an effort to increase its transient occupancy tax, those changes would not significantly improve this year’s budget outlook.
Even with over $1.2 million of additional funds earmarked for the county in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent state budget revision, the county will lay off dozens of employees. County officials will use the added state dollars to save six positions they had initially planned to cut.
Job and service cuts
Employees and union representatives filled the meeting chambers Tuesday morning, with some holding signs that read “cutting workers cuts our community.”
Nellie Evans, a county-employed social worker, said that the cuts will put even more strain on the county health agency, which is already stretched thin.
“The consequences could literally be a matter of life and death,” she said, referring to longer wait times and diminished capacity to serve clients.
Maggie Bettencourt, a behavioral health clinician in Yolo County, echoed that sentiment.
“Our staff are exhausted, they are overwhelmed,” she said. “They cannot do more with less.”
The cuts are coming to the county health agency in part because of restricted funding as a result of federal legislation known as the “big beautiful” bill.
That funding cut meant the department, which receives most of its money from state and federal governments, needed to find almost $10 million worth of cuts this year.
Of the filled positions that are planned for cuts, five are social services assistants in child welfare, six are office support and four are in the county’s employment services department.
Jessica Gomez, who works in the employment services department, said that it has been a place where jobseekers could come for help finding work.
“They knew where to go because of the relationship that YoloWorks has built with the community,” she said.
But cutting employees in her department will affect those services and potentially restrict assistance for county employees who lose their jobs.
County officials said they are hoping more relief will come as the governor continues to revise the state budget.
Daniel Hennessy joins Abridged from the California Local News Fellowship. He’s a reporter covering Yolo County.