Assembly speaker believes services will fall to counties

State Assembly Speaker John Pérez said he expects a realignment of services from the state to county level to happen, even as other aspects of the process of forming a state budget for 2011-12 are still being hashed out.

When directly asked about how local governments will receive funding to handle those services, though, Pérez was less specific in his remarks to the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday.

"It's a complicated process, and there are lot of details to be worked out," said Pérez, D-Los Angeles. "We're working on those details."

The remarks by the Assembly speaker, who described getting a state budget for the next fiscal year as his most pressing priority, drew concern from officials who'd deal with the fallout of realignment.

In an e-mail, Sutter County spokesman Chuck Smith noted supervisors there voted Tuesday night to oppose extending state tax increases, while the governor's proposal calls for using those extensions, if approved by voters, to be partially used for paying for realignment.

"It appears in the proposed constitutional amendment that the counties will move up somewhat on the priority list for funding," Smith added. "There is a lot of history, however, with the State withholding payments at various times for various programs, and counties are skeptical."

Officials with Yuba County could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Under the 2011-12 budget proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown, several social service and public safety functions operated by the state would be gradually transferred to local governments over the next three fiscal years.

Brown scaled back some aspects of the plan last week, meaning fewer state inmates could be transferred to local jails and CalFire would retain responsibility for fire services in most rural areas it serves now.

The revised realignment proposal lists the state vehicle-license fee and sales tax as the sources of revenue for realigned programs. Brown has a deadline of March 10 for legislators to approve a special election in June to ask voters to extend higher VLF and sales taxes to pay for those and other spending proposals.

CONTACT reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709.