Today, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors adopted a fiscally responsible $8.62 billion budget that protects core services, supports working families, and invests in the people who make government work,  even amid mounting fiscal threats from Washington.

Acting Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, who has led the County through months of divided government following a surprise resignation, emphasized that passing this budget required collaboration, persistence, and a clear focus on results even with the Board evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

“This budget keeps deputies on patrol, firefighters on call, and mental health teams in the field,” said Lawson-Remer. “It protects our safety net, invests in our behavioral health workforce, and delivers real results for the people who rely on us.”

The adopted plan includes targeted investments from expanding the behavioral health workforce to funding new emergency response equipment and green infrastructure that reflect both today’s needs and tomorrow’s risks.

But Lawson-Remer also warned that federal threats could soon destabilize local budgets and harm San Diegans who depend on core services. Alongside Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, she introduced a proposal earlier in the day to proactively plan for these impacts. The measure that passed with bipartisan support.

“Trump’s federal budget is not just a fiscal threat,” Lawson-Remer said, referencing the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the U.S. House. “It would gut healthcare, food assistance, and housing support and dump the costs on local governments like ours without the staff, resources, or runway to absorb the blow.”

According to County analysis, the bill would saddle San Diego with hundreds of millions in new costs — including a $276 million spike to CalFresh, tens of millions of cuts to behavioral health funding, a 44% cut in housing for the homeless, and federal mandates that bury safety net programs in red tape. These include complex new eligibility rules for Medi-Cal that would trigger delays, denials, and coverage loss for residents who miss a form, change jobs, or simply can’t get through on the phone.

To put the scale in perspective: the entire County budget currently includes $843 million to fund all core safety net programs, including CalFresh, CalWORKs, and Medi-Cal, for more than a million residents. A $276 million increase for CalFresh alone would consume nearly a third of that funding overnight.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep people housed, fed, and cared for,” Lawson-Remer said. “But if Congress doesn’t reverse course, they’ll force counties into impossible choices, and families across San Diego will pay the price.”