Stanislaus County aims to expand its welfare reform efforts and narrow its health department deficit in the proposed budget for next year.

The $700.7 million spending plan, up 10 percent from the $637.4 million budget for the current year, will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The budget would provide major hikes for mental health and probation and small increases for other departments involved in law enforcement.

"I think that it's a fiscally strong position the county is in -- not overly ambitious, not overly optimistic," said Patty Hill Thomas, assistant executive officer for the county.

The board will consider adopting the proposal as an interim budget effective July 1. Supervisors will consider the final budget in September, when they have more precise about state money and other variables.

The biggest chunk of the proposed spending goes to welfare programs, in which the county mainly passes federal money on to recipients. Because of the 1996 welfare reform act, an increasing amount is going into job training and other efforts that help people find work.

Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, the former mental health department, would put much of its increase into the new center for drug and alcohol treatment in Ceres. Most of the mental health costs are covered by state and federal money and user fees.

The Health Services Agency, which gets its money from similar sources, is trying to end the deficits that have plagued it since it closed the county hospital in 1997 and made clinics the heart of its mission. The deficit is $6.4 million in the current year but just $4.6 million in the proposed budget because of improved bill collection and increased use of the clinics.

Bev Finley, the agency director, said the deficit would close further with approval of legislation that would provide another $2 million in state funding.

"It recognizes that county clinics see an abnormally high number of MediCal, uninsured and indigent patients," she said.

The bill, by state Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, has passed the Assembly and moved to the Senate.

The department also is trying to get the federal government to provide an extra $4.8 million a year for treating low-income patients.

Overall spending by the Health Services Agency would rise about 16 percent in the new budget.

The law-enforcement part of the proposed budget includes a 14 percent boost for the Probation Department, most of it through a state grant for programs aimed at young offenders.

The budget does not include a raise for the Board of Supervisors, which was criticized last year for a policy that granted two automatic increases each year. The board agreed last year to consider increases once a year in public meetings.

The budget projects a 7 percent rise in income from property taxes, reflecting the hot real estate market. Smaller increases are expected in sales taxes and vehicle license fees.

These three taxes make up almost all of the estimated $106.6 million in discretionary revenue in the new budget. This is money the board can shift around because it is not tied to specific programs.

The budget hearing is scheduled to start at 9:40 a.m. Tuesday in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto.

Copies of the budget can be obtained at the county executive's office on the sixth floor of Tenth Street Place, and at county libraries.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.