With talk swirling that stagflation is now a genuine possibility and that a recession is likely — due to the economic upheaval triggered by the White House — Santa Barbara County Executive Mona Miyasato counseled the county supervisors this week, “If you can’t change the course of a storm, be the lighthouse.”
Her remarks came as the supervisors waded into the first of three days of budget deliberations in preparation of the June 17 vote. Though the county should be able to make it through the coming fiscal year starting this June, Miyasato warned it will be a status quo budget. All department heads — with the exception of Sheriff Bill Brown — submitted spending plans in accordance with that. But Brown is seeking $2.7 million additional operating revenues and $710,000 in one-time revenues for nine separate programs.
Public Safety currently consumes 52 percent of all discretionary dollars under the supervisors’ purview. Of the $1.67 billion budget, $407 million are deemed discretionary. The biggest hit — about $10 million — is at the Department of Social Services. (Those cuts will be achieved by keeping vacant positions unfilled.) But Miyasato noted with alarm that in Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee is looking to cut $880 billion in social services funding and the Agriculture Committee plans to cut $230 billion from the food stamp program.
When asked what keeps her up at night, Miyasato replied, “The federal government is attempting to dramatically change the social safety net, public services, and primary economic systems in our country. Even if funding and/or access go away, the need for those services won’t … . Thinking it will affect just ‘those people’ is misleading; it will affect ‘us people’ because 38 percent of our residents get public insurance [Medi-Cal]. At the local level, we don’t have the resources or ability to backfill or compensate for those losses.”
Nevertheless, Miyasato stated the county is in better fiscal shape today than it was before the Great Recession of 2008. Not only is the county’s tax base more stable, but county administrators have imposed a degree of prudence over how the county spends its money, setting aside significant chunks for key unmet needs.
Even so, the county will be spending an additional $12.4 million a year on the debt service needed to complete a $178 million expansion plan for the North County Jail. Mental health advocates showed up on Monday to point out that if the North County expansion program were scaled back by 33 percent, the county could save $4 million a year in debt service costs. In her preliminary remarks, Miyasato told the supervisors, “I want us to out-DOGE DOGE,” riffing on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. In her book, Miyasato said DOGE should stand for “Democracy, Opportunity, Good Governance, and Effectiveness.”
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly included a photo of SBCEO Superintendent Susan Salcido instead of S.B. CEO Mona Miyasato.
