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Faced with a $1.5 million budget shortfall, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors will consider spending cuts, including the elimination of vacant positions, during its meeting on May 13. The meeting will center on a series of presentations by Auditor Joe Paul Gonzalez on the state of the county’s finances.
Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki, who serves on the board’s budget committee, told BenitoLink that the board is focusing on cutting back on expenditures to balance the fiscal year 2025-26 budget.
“We have more of a spending problem,” Kosmicki said. “We’re working the numbers to have a clear picture of where the money is going to do a better job.”
Supervisors Mindy Sotelo and Angela Curro have spoken about the need to increase revenue. They even sought to make revenue generation one of the county’s top five priorities at the beginning of the year.
“There’s a ton of things that we want to do,” said Sotelo on Jan. 28. “We want to do roads and cleanups, but without having the revenue, it’s going to be really challenging.”
But Kosmicki and the new board majority tucked revenue generation into a priority centered on tourism.
Curro told BenitoLink that solving the budget problem requires focusing on both expenditures and revenue. “It’s not one or the other,” she said, adding that there were decisions from previous boards that need to be reconsidered and that she’s pushing to avoid layoffs.
On April 15, Deputy County Administrative Officer Rebecca Campbell presented the first round of budget projections to the supervisors. Her analysis of preliminary expenditures and revenues found a $6.5 million gap in the budget. Campbell pointed to several key causes, including rising costs for fire protection services, information technology upgrades, and post-employment benefits.
The board has already agreed to drop its plan to create a joint powers authority with the San Benito Health Care District to keep Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in public hands. The $5 million the county had saved for that purpose will be reallocated to address more immediate budget needs.
For the remaining $1.5 million, the supervisors are exploring ways to reduce costs.
To tackle the spending, Kosmicki said, the board’s main strategy is to address what he called the “vacancy budget.”
“We’re eliminating positions that have been open for a lot of time, with the exception of public safety roles,” he said, noting that vacancies “really make it hard to project for the year.”
Kosmicki said that this year’s process has been challenging due to a leadership transition. The county has been without a permanent administrative officer since Ray Espinosa stepped down in May 2024, and former budget officer Ramon Aban has taken a different position within the county. Henie Ring has served as interim county administrative officer since Espinosa stepped down, and a new one is expected to be named shortly.
San Benito County’s spending has steadily increased in recent years, but its revenue hasn’t kept pace. According to the budget portal, the county ended fiscal years 2021–22 and 2022–23 with more revenue than expenses. That changed in 2023–24, when expenses nearly doubled while revenues rose by just 44%. Much of the spike in spending was driven by capital fund expenditures and road improvement projects. In 2024–25, the gap continued to widen: expenditures were projected to grow by 11%, while revenue was expected to increase by only 4%.
At its May 6 meeting, the supervisors approved hiring a consultant for up to $50,000 to help with the budget and is considering adopting a different budget methodology.
At that meeting, they passed a temporary hiring freeze—with exceptions for key positions—while the new budget is under construction. Details of the positions impacted will be discussed at the May 13 meeting.
The first public review of the draft budget is scheduled for May 29 and final approval is expected by the end of June.
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