Why this matters
If the federal budget passes as written, it could leave a $250 million hole in the county budget. San Diegans depend on CalFresh and other programs facing cuts.
San Diego County could lose more than a quarter-billion dollars in federal aid for housing, health and nutrition programs if the Republican spending plan moving through Congress is adopted. The County Board of Supervisors passed a balanced budget Tuesday, but could soon be scrambling to make up for those cuts.
They also passed two measures to prepare and respond to those cuts.
The first measure directs staff to prepare a strategy to respond to over $250 million in additional costs the county would be responsible for if the federal budget passes as written. The second directs $500,000 to the San Diego Food Bank to make up for cuts from the federal Department of Agriculture.
The legislation, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” will determine the federal budget and spending levels. The bill passed the U.S. House and is currently in the Senate.
San Diego County leaders passed a balanced $8.62 billion budget, but if the federal spending plan also passes, it would put the burden of $226 million on CalFresh food benefits on the county as well as additional costs to administer the program. The county estimated in a report it would need to spend about $38 million to bolster other programs it considers effective to make up for all of the federal cuts in the bill, according to a county staff report.
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County leaders did not identify where new funding would come from to cover the lost federal dollars. Instead, supervisors directed county staff to identify potential funding sources should the looming federal cuts be signed into law. The federal budget year begins Oct. 1.
“I wanna sort of be clear to our county team. This is not asking you to fix the problems. I believe they are too large for you to fix on your own,” said County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer. “It is asking you to do the analysis to come back to the board with some options, some strategies, and some analysis, and most importantly, to be really clear-eyed on what problems we cannot fix alone.”
At the same time congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump are pushing to cut millions from federal safety net programs, they’re also increasing regulation — including requiring states and local governments responsible for administering the program to enforce work requirements, semi-annual eligibility checks and more. To meet those requirements, the county anticipates doubling the workload to administer the programs.
The programs are taking an additional hit from the county budget, which cut 44 full time enrollment positions who help people enroll in Medi-Cal. Restoring those positions would cost more than $3 million annually, according to a report by the county.
Additional cuts in the federal bill include reductions to Medicaid benefits that will cost an estimated $1 million for the county to replace substance-use and mental health outpatient services.
The federal budget also includes a 44% cut to federal Housing and Urban Development programs. While it is unclear exactly how those cuts would be distributed, it could shift the costs to the county for the 10,000 county households that receive rental assistance through the federal Section 8 program, 208 formerly homeless households with emergency housing vouchers and 140 households with HIV/AIDS that receive long-term rental support.
The measure asks county staff to consider how it could expand a number of programs it considers a success like the Innovative Housing Trust Fund, the LGTBQ+ Homelessness Prevention Initiative, Behavioral Health Bridge Housing and Tenant Legal Services to mitigate lost federal support.
The board approved the measure to prepare for the federal budget cuts 3-1 with Supervisor Jim Desmond voting no. Supervisors also added language telling county staff to reach out to the county’s congressional delegates and state lawmakers to make them aware of the impact the cuts will have on the county.
“The whole reason we’re in this mess is because the state is $12 billion in debt, and the federal government is $36 trillion in debt. So we either raise taxes on everybody to try to make up for that, or we have to make some cuts,” Supervisor Desmond said. “We gotta tighten our belt somehow.”
County staff will report back July 22 and Sept. 30 with strategies for the board to consider.
Officials said that one way or another, the county would have to pay for pending federal cuts.
“I think that this is the fiscally responsible way to make sure that the county of San Diego stays nimble and responsive to the federal cuts that are coming our way,” said Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe. “I feel that if these supports fall through, we will be paying for people to go in and out of our system, whether that is jail, whether that is another system – we will be paying for it.”
Senate Republicans are trying to push through a shift of the cost of SNAP benefits to the states, but the Senate parliamentarian flagged the language in the bill, saying it would need 60 votes and be subject to a filibuster. Politico reported Tuesday that tweaked language may allow Republicans to avoid those obstacles.
In April, Democrats on the Board of Supervisors proposed delaying final votes on the county budget until the impact of the federal budget was clear, but that measure failed with Supervisor Joel Anderson voting no and Supervisor Desmond absent.
In the meeting, Lawson-Remer said that she still remained committed to finding other funding sources, including a previously failed proposal to use county reserves as “bridge funding” to fill looming budget holes.
The board unanimously approved the measure directing the county to give $500,000 to the San Diego Food Bank to purchase food. After the USDA unexpectedly canceled $2 million worth of food that the food bank was expecting through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, the nonprofit had to drop the number of items in each bag distributed through the program from 16 to nine.
The measure also includes $250,000 in funding to the sponsor of SunCoast Market Co-op in Imperial Beach to address food scarcity.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.