Lawton Breathing A Bit Easier

San Andreas, CA — Calaveras CAO Bob Lawton is breathing just a bit easier today following the Thursday passage of California’s fiscal budget.

Lawton commented that he is relieved that Sacramento will immediately start mailing checks to the state’s 58 counties. Without a budget the counties were looking at payments being deferred for seven months.

Lawton says without state payments the county would only have had sufficient resources to maintain services for only six to eight weeks. In addition 50 percent of social service and 25 percent of public works positions would have been sacrificed. The former would have had a direct effect on an ever growing case load while the latter would have reduced the county’s road maintenance and snow removal ability.

Lawton adds that counties will be playing the waiting game … waiting to evaluate the details on spending reductions.

Finally, "The good news is there is news. The unknown news is just exactly what the news is going to be once the details emerge."

Written by bill.johnson@mlode.com