Los Angeles County Supervisors Approve Budget, Including $125M for Department of Health Services
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Monday voted 5-0 to approve a $19.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2005-2006, including $125 million for the county Department of Health Services, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. The budget reflects a 9% increase from this year's $18 billion budget.
The additional funds came from $88 million in additional property tax revenue, $77 million in new state and federal grants and a combination of various funds that were not spent in FY 2005 (Anderson, Los Angeles Daily News, 6/21).
According to the Los Angeles Times, the funding allocation for county DHS "should help delay the enormous budget deficit forecast in the next four years but won't prevent the crisis entirely" (Leonard/Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times, 6/21).
The money reduced the projected deficit in fiscal year 2008-2009 from $1.4 billion to $955 million. The deficit in July 2006 -- when the supervisors are expected to begin making reductions in health services -- is now projected at $197 million, down from the previous projection of $435 million (Los Angeles Daily News, 6/21).
In related news, Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center has requested $63.8 million to make repairs to the hospital's utility infrastructure and to modernize several operating rooms and psychiatric units, according to Los Angeles County officials, the Times reports.
The Board of Supervisors on Monday agreed to earmark the money but delayed for two months the approval on some individual projects. Most of the money will be used to make repairs at the facility, including the replacement of pipes, air ducts and air-handling systems (Ornstein, Los Angeles Times, 6/21).