County adds funding for museums

Faced with several hundred million dollars in potential state cuts and increased employee retirement costs, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $22.3 billion budget, an increase of $346 million over the budget proposed in April. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The additional funding in the 2008-09 budget will pay for renovations at the county's Museum of Natural History, the Music Center, the Museum of Art and La Plaza de Cultura y Arte, as well as infrastructure improvements. It will also boost funding for public safety and the child-protective system.

"We've added some additional funding for our critical capital programs, especially in the area of our cultural facilities," Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said. "We have also added money for our medical programs in the jails and our electronic monitoring program."

The additional funds will allow the county to hire 246 more employees, including five custody assistants to conduct interviews of jail inmates before they are released to determine if they are undocumented immigrants. Eight officers in the jails conducting the interviews now are identifying an estimated 30 percent of the inmates who are undocumented immigrants.