Other budget shoe drops

The other shoe dropped Tuesday (May 5) at the regular meeting of the Butte County Board of Supervisors. That’s when the board officially received interim CAO Greg Iturria’s budget proposal for 2009-10. The proposal contains additional spending cuts—on top of those already made during recent slashing sessions—totaling more than $4 million.

The board took no action on the proposal Tuesday. It will hold public budget hearings beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 18.

Many of the cuts will come from deferred capital projects and equipment replacement, as well as one-time resources savings, but 61.55 additional positions will be eliminated, bringing the county’s total workforce to 2,002 positions, 300 fewer than in May 2008.

The department taking the hardest hit, proportionally, in this round is the Butte County Library. The proposal would result in branches in Chico, Oroville, Paradise and Gridley being open just 12 hours per week and those in Biggs and Durham six hours, unless cities step in with supplemental funding. The supervisors earlier agreed to cuts in the CalFire contract that will result in the rotating closure of two fire stations.