Fact Check: Gavin Newsom warns of layoffs for police, firefighters. Is he exaggerating?
Gov. Gavin Newsom has a dire warning as he campaigns for more federal money for California: If Washington fails to give the state enough help, police officers, firefighters and health care workers are “the first ones to be laid off by cities and counties.”
While such layoffs are a real possibility as the coronavirus pandemic-fueled budget crises persist, It’s difficult to say with any precision what could happen to those workers in the near future, let alone who would get the axe first.
In Sacramento and Fresno, no such police, fire or health care worker layoffs are currently planned despite sudden and severe revenue shortfalls. But in Modesto, not filling police and firefighter vacancies is a very real possibility.
Counties are also feeling the sting. San Luis Obispo County is reshuffling its budget, as it anticipates a $32 million to $56 million general fund shortfall, about 5% to 10% of its general fund budget. No police or firefighter layoffs have been discussed, and no details are expected until next month.
The California Police Chiefs Association sent its members a survey asking about the pandemic’s impact. Thirty percent responded, and of those, 30% said they may have to lay off professional staff or sworn officers.
“That said, there is still significant uncertainty regarding the implications of COVID-19 on local budgets so it is still up in the air about what will happen next fiscal year,” said organization president and Los Alamitos Police Chief Eric Nuñez..
Newsom has been a national leader in the fight to get more federal aid for pandemic-strapped state and local governments. He said last week that $14 billion in spending reductions in his revised budget could be reversed if the state got adequate federal aid.
Sunday, he was asked what would happen if he could not get that aid. “The next time they want to salute our heroes, our first responders, our police officers and firefighters, consider the fact that they are the first ones to be laid off by cities and counties,” the governor told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The folks who are out there, the true heroes of this pandemic are health care workers and nurses. Those county health systems have been ravaged, their budgets have been devastated and depleted, the budget accounts depleted since this pandemic. They’re the first ones to be laid off,” he said.
In Washington, the House Friday approved a Democratic-authored $3 trillion coronavirus relief package that included $875 billion in state and federal aid, but it’s going nowhere in the Republican-led Senate. Some aid is eventually likely, but so far there’s been no serious effort to find a compromise.
Newsom is correct that cities and counties need help quickly.
The League of California Cities found that nine of 10 cities in the state are considering cutting or furloughing staff or decreasing city services to residents because of the revenue shortfalls.
Eight out of 10 cities said police and public works services would be adversely impacted. Half of cities said fire departments would be impacted.
“This means fewer firefighters and police officers to answer emergency calls, reduced garbage pickup frequency, and limited staff for required inspections, processing business licenses, and permitting,” said Nicolas Romo, a League legislative representative, told The Bee.
Some of California’s cities have faced financial problems for years. Last year, the state auditor’s office used metrics to determine that 18 communities were at “high risk” because of their financial situations. Most were in the Los Angeles or San Francisco Bay areas.
Counties also face huge shortfalls. They “remain concerned about meeting the increased demand for safety net services to stabilize our communities,” said Lisa Bartlett, Orange County supervisor and president of the California State Association of Counties.
Whether police, firefighters and health care workers would be the first to be laid off is uncertain and in many instances, at this time, unlikely.
President Donald Trump signed into law a coronavirus relief plan, the CARES Act, in March that provided $150 billion in state and local aid nationwide. About $9.5 billion went to California’s state government and $5.8 billion went to the state’s largest cities and counties. The state share can be used to help smaller cities and counties.
The money must be used for expenses directly related to fighting the coronavirus outbreak, which means help for public safety and health care workers, among other things.
Permissible uses of the money include “payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care, human services, and similar employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID19 public health emergency,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department guidelines.
Also allowed are “expenses for public safety measures undertaken in response to COVID-19” and “COVID-19-related expenses of public hospitals, clinics, and similar facilities.”
The money cannot be used for “payroll or benefits expenses for employees whose work duties are not substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency.”
Different cities are plotting different ways of dealing with the crisis.
The city of San Diego is considering cutting hours for police helicopters, firefighter training for water and cliff rescues, delaying the rollout of roving fire engines that could mean quicker emergency responses and funds for police recruiting, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
KPIX5 in the Bay Area reported that in Grass Valley, Councilwoman Jan Arbuckle warned that “If things continue down this path, we have no other choice other than to start looking at reducing our public safety, which is not what we want to do especially going into our fire season.”
Sacramento plans no layoffs, but will make up for lost revenue using money from its recent sales tax hike, surplus funds and savings from a hiring freeze, halt to staff travel and other early steps to ease the impact of the pandemic. It got $89.6 million from the CARES Act’s coronavirus relief fund.
The city of Fresno, which received $92.7 million, does not plan any immediate layoffs, but has left room to implement them eventually as needed, since the state of the city’s budget is changing rapidly. Officials have said public safety positions are essential.
In Modesto, 30 vacant general fund positions are being considered for elimination. Seven are vacant firefighter positions and 14 are vacant officer positions. These positions are among $10.9 million in general fund reductions the city has identified so far.
The city needs to come up with an additional $9.2 million in general fund cuts, and officials are not saying what the reductions could look like. Much depends on the outcome of talks with its labor groups and what kind of concessions they make, but officials have said layoffs and furloughs are possibilities
They have not said the firefighters and police officers would be the first to be laid off. But three-fourths of the general fund goes to police and fire budgets.
Kevin Valine of the Modesto Bee, Theresa Clift of The Sacramento Bee, Thaddeus Miller of The Fresno Bee and Cassandra Garibay of The Tribune in San Luis Obispo contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fact Check: Gavin Newsom warns of layoffs for police, firefighters. Is he exaggerating?."
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