Marin supervisors approve $682.6M county budget

Marin County supervisors have signed off on a $682.6 million budget for fiscal 2021-22 that includes one-time expenditures totaling $25.9 million.

The new budget,10.1% larger than the current one, was balanced through $7.8 million in adjustments in November and better-than-expected tax revenue in recent months despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The budget approval on Wednesday capped three days of hearings during which department heads reprised accomplishments from the fiscal year as well as briefed supervisors on future initiatives.

The hearings began with comments from the public on Monday. Last year’s hearings, coming just weeks after the death of George Floyd, were dominated by calls to cut funding for the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

This year, the criticism of law enforcement continued, but with less intensity.

“I’m calling on the Board of Supervisors to abolish funding for the Marin County sheriff’s department completely,” said Kristen Zibell of Larkspur. “The Marin County sheriff’s department is a domestic terrorist organization.”

Zibell urged supervisors to use the sheriff’s budget to provide reparations for Marin County’s Black population.

Another commenter, Deborah Taube, thanked supervisors for providing funding to the county’s race equity initiative. Last year, supervisors shifted $1.7 million from the sheriff’s budget to unspecified race equity projects. The county had previously allocated $1 million for race equity work in fiscal 2020-21.

Even though the county has spent only $1 million of the $2.7 million reserved, the fiscal 2021-22 budget includes plenty of new spending on racial equity. The list includes $760,000 in ongoing spending for the creation of a new “equity division”; $500,000 for new equity initiatives by the district attorney; $350,000 to hire an equity analyst to work for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services; and $3 million for unspecified Marin City infrastructure.

Supervisors also provisionally approved spending another $5 million on racial equity using funds provided by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act. The board approved a provisional list of other projects that might be funded with another $20 million from the federal relief legislation.

Damian Morgan, chair of the Marin City Community Services District board, remained skeptical. He asked what the county is going to do to raise Black residents out of poverty in Marin City.

“What are you doing in your budget?” Morgan said. “I look forward to hearing the line item that says: for-profit business opportunities for Black individuals in Marin City.”

Other commenters questioned whether the county is doing enough to help its low-income seniors. Seniors make up a third of the county’s population.

Teri Dowling, co-chair of the county’s Aging Action Initiative, thanked supervisors for allocating $500,000 for aging and older adult initiatives in the new budget.

However, Sylvia Barry, a member of the county’s Commission on Aging, asked the county to supply her with demographic information on the people being housed through its programs for the homeless. Barry said previous attempts to get the information had been unsuccessful.

“My concern,” said Barry, who was speaking for herself and not the commission, “is that the priorities for housing the homeless do not include older adults, which we all know are increasing in numbers.”

Later on Monday, Ken Shapiro, chief operating officer for the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, told supervisors the county has formed a committee to revamp procedures to house the homeless “to ensure we’re housing people with a racial equity lens.”

“The older adults who are experiencing homelessness tend to be whiter,” Shapiro said, “and the younger tend to be people of color.”

Although the county has already received $25 million through the American Rescue Plan Act and expects to get another $25 next year, County Administrator Matthew Hymel counseled against committing to new ongoing spending in the budget.

In her closing remarks, Supervisor Katie Rice said, “We have an ongoing structural challenge. We are a slow-growth county and our expenses rise faster than revenues when are in more normal times. I think that is a challenge to communicate.”

Budget Manager Bret Uppendahl said he expects only about 4% annual growth in the county’s property tax revenue over the next several years, a full percentage point below the historic average. Property tax accounts for about 38% of the county’s discretionary revenue.

At the same time, the county’s pension costs are rising. In February, the Marin County Employees Retirement Association reduced the employee pension fund’s assumed annual rate of return from 7% to 6.75%. That will require the county to boost its pension contributions by $2.4 million in fiscal 2021-22, and when the change is fully phased in, it will have hiked the county’s pension contributions by $3.5 million annually.

The new fiscal year starts July 1.