Orange County releases the FY 2022-23 recommended budget

Santa Ana, Calif. (May 25, 2022) – Today the County of Orange released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-23 Recommended Budget, making it available for review by the Board of Supervisors and the public at: https://cfo.ocgov.com/budget.

The total County base budget is $8.8 billion, of which $4.8 billion is the General Fund budget with $975M in discretionary funding. The Recommended Budget is consistent with the County’s long-term strategic priorities identified through the County’s five-year Strategic Financial Plan process.

A Citizens’ Guide to the FY 2022-23 Budget was developed, and is also available online, to provide members of the public with an overview of the FY 2022-23 Budget including General Fund revenue sources and uses, timeline, department requests, and key initiatives the County is prioritizing and funding including OC CARES strategic priorities focusing on serving individuals in the County’s various systems of care.

The County’s OC CARES initiative links the various systems of care in the County to provide full care coordination and services for individuals to address immediate and underlying issues with the goal of attaining self-sufficiency. Significant achievements have been made in implementing the OC CARES 2025 Vision, including various initiatives in the FY 2022-23 Recommended Budget. Additional information on the OC CARES 2025 Vision can be found at: https://ceo.ocgov.com/government-community-relations/orange-county-criminal-justice-coordinating-council.

Over the last two fiscal years, the County leveraged the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding in its public health response and to support small businesses, restaurants, hospitals, cities, community clinics, skilled nursing facilities, childcare facilities and food banks. The County is now leveraging American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for the continued response to COVID-19 and programs and projects that serve the community and facilitate the County’s recovery to pre-pandemic conditions. The County took into consideration the feedback provided by the public during the public comment period (February 1 through March 11, 2022) in its recommended use of the ARPA funds. The County remains committed to moving forward on many initiatives benefiting the community throughout all stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The County received the first tranche of $308.4 million in ARPA funding in FY 2020-21 and anticipates the second tranche of the same amount before the end of the current fiscal year. Additional ARPA information can be found at: https://cfo.ocgov.com/resources/arpacares-act-reports.

The County Executive Office looks forward to presenting the FY 2022-23 Recommended Budget to the Board of Supervisors during the Public Budget Hearings scheduled for June 14, 2022.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to adopt the FY 2022-23 Annual Budget at their June 28, 2022 meeting.

The County of Orange will offer a Public Budget Workshop on Wednesday, June 1, 2022 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room. Staff will provide a high-level overview of the County’s FY 2022-23 Recommended Budget for those in attendance and online. The workshop will be livestreamed via the County’s Facebook and YouTube channels along with Network Television Time (NTT) broadcasting.

The FY 2022- 23 Recommended Budget, Budget Augmentation Requests, Transmittal Letter, Key Budget Message, Department Contact List and Citizens’ Guide can be found online at https://cfo.ocgov.com/budget.

The County also invites members of the public to explore additional budgetary and financial information online through the OpenOC data tool, the Strategic Financial Plan and budget reports. These helpful resources can be found at the links above and: http://ocgov.com/about/openoc/.