Santa Cruz County's $1.29B Budget Avoids Layoffs — Central Coast FQHCs Still Need 2027 UIS/PPS Sensitivity Models

Santa Cruz County's adopted FY2026-27 budget (~$1.29 billion) avoids layoffs by leaning on roughly $43 million in one-time funds, dropping reserves to about 10.4% — a one-year patch, not a structural fix. For FQHC boards, the cleaner takeaway is not a named-clinic dollar benchmark: it is that the signed state budget moved the major State-Only/UIS clinic-payment reduction into a July 1, 2027 planning horizon while DHCS implementation details remain the source of truth.

Central Coast centers should model their own UIS panel, visits by service line, PPS rates, and fee-schedule/managed-care sensitivity before treating any local exposure figure as decision-grade.