The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) hosted its first-ever webinar on Thursday to provide media with information on the upcoming state budget process.

Topics included realignment, state mandates, impacts of the most recent budget wrangling and an overview of how counties have been cutting and restructuring programs.

One of the more interesting points made by Jean Kinney Hurst, CSAC’s Legislative Representative for Revenue and Taxation, was regarding the slow growth in revenue for local governments.

“The state’s revenue seems to be picking up a little bit,” Hurst said in the Webinar. “Locally, we’re not going to have the same type of recovery that the state is experiencing.

“The recovery will be slow for us because of reliance on property taxes. We really anticipate a number of years before we get back to a place where property taxes are growing as we previously experienced.”

No one has a crystal ball, but Hurst anticipates it may be three years out that things rebound. Hurst said that she doesn’t expect most counties to be in the positive until after 2012-13.

How’s the revenue growth of your county? We’re interested in hearing. E-mail the editor at jspencer@publicceo.com