Funding the Next Generation is working to increase funding for children, youth and families in local budgets.  A part of this work is ensuring that existing dollars available to cities and counties are spent in ways that protect our future.  Our newsletter will have a series of articles about local budget strategies.  The first is from Reed Connell, seasoned policy advocate and co-founder of Social Change Partners. His article focuses on understanding the importance of "realignment" and its possibilities for funding prevention programs. 
 

The Big Fix - Over the past several years, Governor Jerry Brown has deployed a dizzying array of strategies to restore California's $27 billion deficit into the revenue surpluses, rainy day funds, and a growing General Fund budget we are experiencing today. 2011 Realignment was just one part of the Governor's big fix, but for children's advocates, it is crucial to understand how it transformed planning and policy for child welfare and health programs. Realignment reduced the role of the Legislature and provides counties with both flexibility and proportionate revenue growth.

Basically, under Realignment, decisions that used to be made in the State Capitol are now made in the Board chambers and public agencies of California's 58 counties. Most foster care and child welfare programs, all children's health programs funded through Medi-Cal, most community mental health programs for adults, and Adult Protective Services were all transformed. The money that pays for these programs now bypasses the State General Fund entirely - and thus the Legislature's budgeting process. Instead, a proportion of Sales Tax and Vehicle Licensing Fee revenue now flows through a state special fund and is distributed directly to the counties according to a complex set of allocation formulas. Before Realignment, the sections of the budget summary that described the included programs ran to dozens of pages. Since Realignment, they're not included at all.

New County Control - In exchange for taking on additional fiscal responsibility, the counties successfully argued for new flexibility to manage programs according to local priorities and protection from new statewide mandates. They're still on the hook for all the federal mandates that come with federally funded programs, but many state programs were made optional. Perhaps the clearest example of the new flexibility is that counties can now reduce or eliminate optional programs and redirect the funds to other purposes.  Furthermore, counties can invest growth as they see fit. In 2011, Realignment revenue totaled about $5.5 billion across the state; the Legislative Analyst's Office estimated that by 2014-15, there'd be some $6.8 billion total, and by 2016-17, $7.6 billion total - and it looks like growth has outpaced even those estimates. As each county is allocated a proportion of the total, much of this growth has flowed directly to the local level.

Transparency An Issue - California's county-administered social system is inherently complex - 58 counties have 58 Boards and hundreds of departments among them. And the Realignment legislation didn't provide for much transparency, so it's now extremely difficult to know what's going on. There's no website that consolidates information about Realignment revenues, allocations, and actual transfers to counties, so it's hard to estimate growth. The Legislature requires only minimal retrospective reporting on Realignment, so it's almost impossible to track how counties are using their new found flexibility. You simply can't Google your way to an understanding of how much money is available or how it's being spent. You've got to go straight to your county leadership and ask.

Powerful Tool for Advocates - Of course, the combination of growth and flexibility provides a powerful tool to develop new approaches and make new commitments to serving our communities' most vulnerable kids. In the context of ongoing economic growth, I believe that Realignment should be thought of as a huge opportunity for local children's programs. We - California's children's advocates, including the Funding the Next Generation communities - can influence how our counties take advantage of Realignment, but it simply has to happen through sustained local organizing and advocacy.

Reed Connell is a co-founder of Social Change Partners, and a member of Funding the Next Generation's Advisory Committee. Contact him atreed@socialchangepartners.com 

GOOD NEWS: Reed will be coaching counties at the March 27 meeting of our Learning Network.