Alameda County Faces $91M Budget Gap as State and Federal Aid Falls Far Short

Alameda County's Budget Workgroup met for its third session on May 19 and heard a cascading set of fiscal warnings: the governor's May Revise delivers only a fraction of what counties requested to absorb federal policy changes, the local budget gap stands at $91.4 million with barely half closed, and the county's safety-net partners are running out of runway. With a proposed budget due May 28, the path to balance remains unclear — and next year looks worse.

• $91.4 million county budget gap for FY 2626-27 is roughly 55% closed; staff still searching for $41 million in solutions before May 28 deadline
• Governor's May Revise offers counties only $104 million of the $1.9 billion requested to offset rising costs from federal HR1 policy changes
• Medi-Cal disenrollments projected at 44,000 this budget year, growing to 1.1 million statewide by 2029-30 — hitting Alameda County's massive caseload hard
• East Bay job growth trails the nation at 3% over the past decade, with tech firms shifting investment from workers to AI
• Health director warns community-based organizations cannot sustain services without realistic expectations about bridge funding
• Public commenters urge the board to revisit the Babu jail settlement, citing more than 100 permanently unfilled funded positions as a structural budget drain

Sacramento lobbyist Amy Costa of Full Moon Strategies delivered a sobering May Revise briefing to the workgroup: while the state is flush — projecting $16.5 billion above January revenue estimates — nearly all of it is headed into reserves rather than into the programs counties are begging to fund.