Kern County residents and frontline health workers packed the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday morning, delivering an emotional plea: don’t dismantle the public health system they rely on.
From teen advocates to infectious disease nurses, speaker after speaker warned that proposed cuts to the Public Health Department could strip vulnerable communities of life-saving services. They stressed that the consequences would be immediate and generational.
Their outcry followed the county’s release of a budget reflecting modest overall gains. Property tax revenue rose 2.57% from last year, pushing the county’s total assessed property valuation to $129 billion. Despite a slowing real estate market caused by high interest rates, residential and commercial values grew by 4.3%, offsetting another steep drop in oil and gas valuations, which fell 12.32% this year and have plunged more than 64% since 2014…