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The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors this week approved a nearly $7.3 billion budget for the coming fiscal year.
The new 2026-2027 budget was balanced using ongoing revenues and “one-time departmental funds” to tackle rising costs and lower funding from state and federal sources, county officials said in a news release Tuesday.
The budget proposal was included in the supervisor’s consent calendar, which was approved unanimously without comment Tuesday following public hearings in April.
“As we navigate continued fiscal uncertainty, our priority remains protecting essential services, supporting vulnerable residents, and maintaining long-term fiscal stability,” Supervisor Diane Burgis said. “Community input during budget discussions will help guide the County’s priorities and decisions in the coming year and beyond.”
One of the biggest fiscal challenges facing many local governments across the country was the passage of H.R. 1, the federal funding bill drafted by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump.
The so-called “big beautiful bill” dramatically slashes money for food assistance and health care for millions of Americans.
In Contra Costa County, it will jeopardize Medicare for 93,000 people and CalFresh food benefits for 17,600 people, according to county officials.
Roughly 53 percent of the county’s budget is funded by state and federal sources.
To balance the budget, seven county departments found cost savings totaling a little more than $91 million by leaving unfilled positions vacant during the fiscal year.
That savings includes $65.3 million from Health Services, $23 million from Employment and Human Services, nearly $1 million from the library system, $630,000 from the Public Defender’s Office, $379,000 from Child Support Services, $503,000 from the Department of Information Technology and $427,000 from Animal Services.
To help cope with state and federal budget cuts, the Board of Supervisors placed Measure B on the June ballot.
Measure B is a five-year, five-eighth-cent sales tax that aims to raise $150 million annually to backfill federal funding cuts to health care and other essential services.
The county estimates that its health system will lose more than $300 million over the next five years because of the federal cuts, and the ballot argument for Measure B states that the tax is crucial to make up that deficit.
“It exempts food, housing, and medical care, so most of the money from this tax will come from corporate or large luxury purchases,” according to the ballot argument in favor of the measure.
— Story by Kiley Russell, Bay City News
