May 5, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors held its third quarter budget workshop yesterday and heard a covid briefing from public health officer Dr. Andy Coren.
Though the forecast for non-departmental revenues, mostly from taxes, is over $80 million, the board is bracing for several possible blows, including inflation, the loss of cannabis taxes, and the as-yet unknown fiscal impacts of drought.
And, although the county’s positive test numbers are down, so are the numbers of people getting tested. There’s still a vaccination gap between whites and Hispanics, with 57% of the Caucasian population vaccinated and only 40% of Hispanic people. The numbers do not reflect shots administered by Indian Health Services, VA, or pharmacies. And Coren said more variants have turned up in the county, including the case of the UK variant reported on Friday.