Supervisors vote to increase emergency fund from $692M to $1.3B

Terra Lawson-Remer at a Board of Supervisors meeting when she was Vice Chair File photo courtesy Terra Lawson Remer s office The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has voted - to give final approval to changing the formula for its budget reserves The vote the required second reading before a proposed ordinance becomes law increases the county s recognized crisis reserves from million to billion according to a declaration from board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe the proposal s sponsors Lawson-Remer Montgomery Steppe and Supervisor Paloma Aguirre approved the new protocol while their colleagues Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond were opposed According to the Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe the framework now revises the reserve formula based on daily operating expenses rather than one-time capital projects with a minimum reserve target at million down from the previous projection of million includes both unassigned and assigned reserves under board control and available in a true emergency in accordance with best practices from the Cabinet Finance Officers Association recognizes the reserves increase from million to billion approximately million higher According to Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe the new framework does not authorize automatic spending but instead installs the strongest protections in county history Those include board supervisor approval only spending those reserves during a recession or in response to state or federal cuts to core services According to the lawmakers withdrawals are capped at or million per year The board voted - on Aug to give the proposal its initial approval with Aguirre Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe voting yes and Anderson and Desmond voting no Desmond in a report described the first approval as a reckless step backward for San Diego County