In its most recent budget, Santa Barbara County increased funding for its deferred maintenance backlog, however, it’s not enough to keep pace with the backlog’s growth.
The county Board of Supervisors approved the 2019-20 budget at a meeting on June 11, which included no service level reductions for the first time in years, county CEO Mona Miyasato said at the meeting.
During the board’s deliberation, 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam said that overall he is supportive of the budget, but it doesn’t do enough to address the county’s deferred maintenance needs, which include repairs to roads and properties owned by the county.
In 2014-15, the backlog of maintenance projects totaled $292 million. In this year’s budget, the amount is $438 million. The budget allocates $22.6 million to address the backlog this year, while the backlog increased $38 million from the previous fiscal year.
“If that continues on at that rate, you’re going to have a hard time catching that,” Adam said.
The supervisors agreed that the county needs to do more to address this issue, but they disagreed on the best path forward.
First District Supervisor Das Williams and 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart recommended that the county look into holding an election asking voters to approve a 1 percent sales tax increase. Hart said this could generate up to $7.5 million for the county to allocate to maintenance improvements.
“That’s how you solve this problem,” Hart said. “There’s no way we’re going to cut $20 million from the county budget and have that be sustainable or realistic.”
Additionally Hart said the county should continue advocating for the federal government to increase the federal gas tax rate to the level of inflation. Hart said the government hasn’t done this in 25 years, and if it did, it would generate about $6 million for the county to spend on road maintenance projects.
Because federal decisions are out of the county’s hands, Adam said supervisors should instead focus on allocating the money that’s currently available.
Ultimately the board didn’t take action on the deferred maintenance backlog beyond the funding already allocated in the budget. However, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said he would be open to discussing the subject more at a future meeting.
“I’d be supportive of bringing back an agenda item that talks about … what are our different options for dealing with this backlog,” Lavagnino said.
This article appears in Jun 20-27, 2019.