County supervisors unanimously approved a new $4.98 billion 2013-14 budget Tuesday.
The new approved budget included slight changes from the proposed spending plan that was presented to the Board of Supervisors in May, mainly to hire more staff and spend an additional $8.9 million to help manage prisoners “realigned” by the state to counties.
County Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer said the new budget would spend about 2.7 percent more than the 2012-13 budget and was balanced and structurally sound. She said the County and its 16,627 employees, led by the Board of Supervisors, would continue to find new and improved ways to serve the public.
The new two-year budget expects to spend $4.98 billion in fiscal year 2013-14 and $4.81 billion in fiscal year 2014-15.
County staff presented the budget plan to Supervisors May 7. The Board opened the public comment period June 10. That public comment period closed June 19.
The County of San Diego provides services that touch nearly all residents who live in the county. Just some of those include collecting property taxes; operating the San Diego County’s Sheriff’s Department, which provides police protection to both the unincorporated areas and nine of the county’s 18 cities; overseeing child support payments for divorced families; investigating suspicious deaths from the medical examiner’s office; providing health and social services; running dozens of parks and 33 libraries; providing animal control and public health services; inspecting restaurants; monitoring beach water quality; and overseeing disaster preparedness.
