Mar 28, 2010

Budget Cuts?

The county of Santa Clara spent a total of $4,334 million in fiscal year 2009. This is nearly twice as much as spent in 2000. Do you feel like you are getting twice the service? If you're like me, what sticks in your mind is the constant political angst of budget cuts. Yet somehow, despite the annual despair that is our budget process, actual spending grew by over $2,000 million during the past decade! How did this happen?

In fiscal year 2000 Santa Clara County had a headcount budget of 14,103 full time equivalent (FTE) employees. It spent just under $1,000 million on salaries and benefits. In 2009, despite years of painful cuts, there were 15,504 FTE, an increase of nearly 10%. The tab for salary and benefits had doubled to nearly $2,000 million!

Here's some math: the average salary and benefit cost in 2009 was $127,858 per FTE, an 85% increase from 2000. By comparison, the median household income for Santa Clara County increased about 19% between 2000 and 2008, according to Census Bureau estimates.

Something doesn't add up.
at

1 comment:

  1. blue223/30/10, 11:20 PM

    Those numbers should certainly provide a splash of cold water in the face to anyone concerned about our future in this place- one of the best places in the nation to live. The dire situation we find ourselves in today has not been conjured up overnight. It only gets worse from here. We need leaders who are committed to spending our money responsibly. We need labor leaders who have a script different from the “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee “ of the past. Do you feel the rising anger of taxpayers who question where it is written that working a government job means the taxpayers somehow owe that worker a lifetime package of security and benefits that most can only dream of?

    ReplyDelete