Articles by Lucas Robinson

Politics

‘We have to be creative’: Supervisors OK partnership with philanthropists to free up $13M in county budget

San Diego County will see about $13 million freed up in its next annual budget under a new partnership that supervisors approved Tuesday with the San Diego Foundation. Under the agreement, the foundation will cover $18 million of bills the county has with its social services contractors. Leaders want the partnership to bolster social safety-net programs at a time of rising food insecurity and worries over how new rules for Medicaid and food benefits will affect people in the San Diego region. “It’s very clear we cannot sit back and hope Washington comes to our rescue,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, who helped craft the partnership with the foundation. “We have to be creative and collaborative and build safety nets to protect San Diego families,” she said. The county is still finalizing which contracts will be paid for by the foundation instead of the county. Lawson-Remer has said they include county support for nonprofits that deal with seniors, food access, behavioral health, homelessness and other safety-net programs. In exchange for support from the foundation, the county will contribute $4 million of the $18 million freed up in its budget to the San Diego Unity Fund, a community grant program created by the foundation in September. Taxpayers will pay an additional $900,000 to the foundation for an administrative fee for the county’s donation. The foundation has partnered with two other local philanthropic juggernauts — the Prebys Foundation and Price Philanthropies — to give tens of millions of dollars to local groups that work on access to food, health care and housing. Philanthropic leaders see threats to those needs from Republican-led legislation signed by President Donald Trump that cut funding for Medicaid and food stamps, while imposing new eligibility and work requirements for some people who use the programs. On Tuesday, Lawson-Remer’s proposed agreement to pair private money with public services got a mostly warm reception from other supervisors. Supervisor Joel Anderson, who represents much of the county’s unincorporated area, said he was backing it as a way to support communities in his district that lack access to mass transit and have household incomes far below the county median. “I trust that the foundation will take those people into consideration, and make sure the unincorporated communities are also covered,” Anderson said. Supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Monica Montgomery Steppe asked that supervisors get informal updates on how the new savings are spent and on the overall progress of the partnership. Supervisors voted 4-1 in support of the partnership, with Supervisor Jim Desmond voting against it. Desmond downplayed concerns about new work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, pointing to various exemptions. For Medicaid, exemptions extend to people with children under 13, disabled veterans, people who are medically frail and Native Americans, among others. SNAP recipients are exempt if they have children or certain disabilities, or are a veteran or homeless. “These are described as devastating requirements and cuts,” he said. “I think these are good achievable goals. Those who really need the benefits will remain on them.” County estimates indicate it could still cost the county up to $300 million a year to administer the new rules, and to cover potential cost-sharing for food stamps. Ensuring SNAP recipients are employed could cost the county between $4.6 million and $27.8 million. It’s still unclear how often they’ll have to verify their employment, and therefore how many new staffers the county will need. The federal government previously covered the cost of SNAP benefits, but new cost-sharing measures passed by Congress could cost the county $150 million per year if the state doesn’t step in to absorb some of that cost. With Medi-Cal, verifying work requirements could cost between $21 million and $63 million to hire new county staff, depending on how frequently employment will need to be reported, county estimates suggest. Citing those new costs, Democratic supervisors have begun to lay the groundwork for a potential ballot measure next year to raise taxes and bring in more revenue for the county.