Santa Clara County releases
2005 annual report

By Anna Molin, Bay City News Service

March 3, 2006

SAN JOSE (BCN) -In 2005, Santa Clara County invested $8 million in affordable housing, completed several Measure B transportation projects and saw signs of a moderate economic recovery following three years of consecutive downturns.

That's according to the county's 2005 annual report released this week.

The $8 million invested in affordable housing created 425 new units for low-income residents, bringing the total to 1,000 new units in the last couple of years.

Commuters traveling between state Highway 85 and U.S. Highway 101 and state highways 237 and 880 finally saw long-awaited interchanges aimed at easing traffic as some of Measure B's projects were completed.

Unemployment dropped slightly, but remained higher than the state average, according to the report.

The county also collected 8.3 percent more in property taxes in 2005 than in 2004.

The jump followed an increase in new construction and changes of homeownership, which bumped up the assessed value of property within the county by $17.76 billion in the last year. The total value of property recorded in the county in 2005 was $240.14 billion, according to the report.

Facing another year of state budgets cuts in local support, the county set aside $76.6 million in reserves, $72.2 million of which are contingency funds with another $4.4 million for economic uncertainty in 2006.

Perhaps the biggest blow for the county last year was the abrupt closure of the San Jose Medical Center, which in early 2005 shut its doors for good. The closure came two years earlier than originally anticipated and shifted the responsibility of its emergency patients to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Stanford Hospital.

As a result, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center had to accommodate nearly twice as many trauma patients and 10,000 more visits to the emergency room than in previous years, according to the report.

The report also noted that Santa Clara County maintained its position as the largest county in the Bay Area, with a population of 1,759,585 and a budget of $3.6 billion.

Copyright © 2006 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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