The County of San Bernardino is facing a decade of structurally defunct budgets, that could lead to as high as a $125 million budget gap in 2020. According to the county’s CEO, the only way to prevent that from happening is to adjust (reduce) county services and increase revenues.

He has proposed cutting services by nearly $30 million per year, and reducing salaries and compensations by the same through smaller raises and increased pension contributions. Even with those steps, the county still has to come up with another $22 million to cover its annual, structural gap of $82 million.

From the San Bernardino Sun:

San Bernardino County’s best chance at staving off a $125 million budget gap by 2020 is to increase revenue, reduce public services, be more efficient and reduce compensation to employees, Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux said Tuesday.

Devereaux painted a bleak picture of the county’s fiscal future during a budget presentation to the Board of Supervisors, citing service shortfalls, staffing at the new Adelanto jail, labor contracts and retirement costs as the culprits.

But the bigger issue, Devereaux said, is an ongoing annual deficit of $82 million.

Read the full article here.