With two new Fresno County supervisors comes a more public budget process. Last year, the board approved a $5.2 billion spending plan.

And, when the county’s biggest departments present their individual budgets to the supervisors in September, top of mind will be how federal benefit cuts will affect food programs and health care.

Supervisors on July 8 approved a plan to have heads of the biggest departments present their budgets when discussions begin. Normally, supervisors meet with managers behind closed doors, but Supervisor Garry Bredefeld — who pushed the change — said the process needs to be more public.

“At the end of the day, we’re all here for the public,” Bredefeld said. “Everything we do here is funded by the public and they ought to be able to weight in on those critical departments.”

Department heads have been instructed to cut 5%, said County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland. That still doesn’t account for the anticipated deficit, and the county will have to use one-time funds to fill that gap, Nerland predicted.

The county also has to figure out how federal cuts affect social programs. Supervisor Luis Chavez said public presentations for department budgets will help people understand the impacts.

“We need to communicate to our local folks exactly how many people are going to get kicked off of SNAP, how many people are going to go without medical services because I think that’s going to help us triage how we respond to that,” Chavez said.

530,000 Fresno County Residents Receive a County Benefit

President Donald Trump’s recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill” made significant changes to several benefits programs, including Medi-Cal and CalFresh, which are California’s distribution channels for federal Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

About 530,000 people in Fresno County receive some sort of county benefit, said Nerland. The county’s population is estimated at 1.037 million, according to the state Department of Finance.

In Fresno County, more than 270,000 people received benefits from CalFresh in 2022, according to the Federal Reserve, representing 23% of the population. Compare that to the 13% receiving benefits statewide.

CalFresh funding won’t be affected this year, Nerland said at the July 8 supervisor meeting. In 2026, however, supervisors will have to find $6.5 million more for the program as the federal government will reduce its contribution to the program from 50% to 25%.

A Look at the New Work Requirements

New work requirements will be also added for CalFresh beginning in 2027. At the same time, federal funding for the CalFresh — SNAP — education program will be cut in October.

The federal administration said work requirements will cut down on fraud, claiming three-quarters of able-bodied adults on SNAP have no earned income and fraud is high.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in April said employment metrics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture can be skewed as SNAP recipients often have unstable jobs with frequent job turnover.

Using U.S. Census data, the research institute claimed that in 2023, 82% of households with a working age, non-disabled adult reported at least some earnings that year.

A new 20-hour weekly work requirement will also be implemented for Medi-Cal recipients, though the administration says it only applies to people who can work.

“The 20-hour weekly work requirement applies only to able-bodied adults without young children and promotes dignity, stability, and better health outcomes for families,” the administration said in a release.

Sonia Brar, public information officer with Fresno County, said the county does not have detailed information yet about much the changes will impact Medi-Cal recipients. Officials, however, anticipate “substantial impacts.”

“Medi-Cal funding supports public health, emergency care, primary care, and many other services for disadvantaged, vulnerable, and impoverished Fresno County residents,” Brar told GV Wire. “The most significant proposed change appears to be the work verification requirement.”

Officials Finding Out How Big Deficit Will Be

Fresno County officials are working on how big the deficit will be, said communications director Sonja Dosti.

“Thanks to conservative budgeting and excellent fiscal stewardship by our board of supervisors, the county has set aside one-time funding that will help offset the deficit,” Dosti told GV Wire.

She said the county has increased their reserves from $16 million to $90 million in the past decade, but the goal is not to use that. She said one-time funding sources could include interest from the American Rescue Plan Act payments or funds originally set aside for building projects.