San Mateo County and its 20 cities are still short $73 million in vehicle license fee money the state promised them, a gap that has forced the county to set aside contingency reserves and could require cuts if not resolved.

County Supervisor Jackie Speier disclosed the shortfall in her July newsletter, published Wednesday, July 22. The state owes the county and its cities $150 million total in VLF replacement funds, Speier wrote. Legislative advocates secured $77 million in the state budget, but the governor's budget left out the remaining $80 million.

"We are also no closer to a permanent fix to this broken formula so that we can avoid this annual budget uncertainty and crisis," Speier wrote.

Assemblymember Diane Papan's office cited a lower total of $119 million owed in a June 13 statement. The discrepancy may reflect cumulative versus single-year accounting, but neither office has publicly explained the difference.

18% of the county's general fund at risk

The stakes are real for local taxpayers. VLF replacement funding accounts for 18 percent of San Mateo County's general fund, according to the county's $5.2 billion budget approved June 8. County Executive Mike Callagy warned at that hearing that failure to restore the money would force painful choices.

"We're going to have a dramatic amount of funding to make up," Callagy said. "It is such an enormous amount."

The budget includes contingency reserves as a temporary bridge. No city-by-city breakdown for Burlingame or Hillsborough has been released. For scale, Redwood City was projected to receive about $3.5 million from the $77 million allocation, according to Papan's office on June 17.

Under a 2004 statewide agreement between Sacramento and all 58 counties, the state replaced local vehicle license fee revenue with guaranteed payments. Speier said that promise has been kept for nearly every other county in California. San Mateo County is the outlier.

Papan, who represents the 21st Assembly District covering San Mateo County, led the legislative push alongside state Sen. Josh Becker. She called the $77 million "an important step forward" in June but said it "doesn't fully resolve the issue."

The Board of Supervisors will resume its full schedule in August. No specific return date has been announced.