Understanding the complexities of the county-state fiscal relationship is difficult, even for seasoned county officials. For new county supervisors who have only been in office a couple of months, it can be downright mind boggling. Attendees at this morning’s session of the CSAC New Supervisors Institute in Sacramento, though, were treated to a very informational and easy-to-understand explanation and historical perspective of state county-state fiscal relationship.
Government hates to give up control. It isn’t good at it. But sometimes it is necessary. This is one of those times.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal makes the case for realignment, the restructuring of state-local relationships that, in this case, redirects responsibility and resources for government programs from the state to the counties.
California’s 58 counties are as diverse as the residents and regions they represent. For CSAC, depending on the issue, there is a sense of both beauty and challenge in this diversity. Take, for instance, the Governor’s proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies. In the past two weeks, this blog has published entries written by two county [...]
In Riverside County, redevelopment is the essential tool eradicating blight, building affordable housing and bringing much-needed jobs and public projects to revitalize communities.
Now that federal health care reform is a reality, there have been a lot of questions surrounding its implications on county health and human services systems. For the more than 70 county officials representing 29 counties who attended today’s course conducted by the CSAC Institute for Excellence in County Government, a lot of these questions were answered.