STOCKTON — San Joaquin County may add 250 new positions during the fiscal year starting July 1.

The 1 percent increase in staffing that would bring the number of people employed by the county to 8,045 is among the highlights of the proposed budget presented Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors.

The proposed increase for allocated positions comes as the county struggles to fill vacancies.

As of April 30, the vacancy rate across all county departments was 16.5% compared to 15.9% in 2022.

The proposed 2023-2024 budget is $2.59 billion.

Revenue comes from government aid $1,051,300,000 (41%), charges for service $614.6M (24%), sales and property taxes $413M (16%), operating transfers $335.9M (14%), other revenue $31.4M (1%), and fines and forfeitures $6.6M (<1%).

Appropriations are proposed as follows: Health Services $986.6M (38%), Human Services $567.6M (22%), Law and Justice $492M (19%), General Government $222.5M (9%), Capital Maintenance $145.1M (6%), and the remainder being allocated to Environmental Protection $29.8M, Parks & Recreation $9.2M, and Education $8.7M.

 Property taxes are by far the largest sources of General Purpose Revenue and while property tax growth is strong in 2023-2024, this trajectory is not projected to continue in the future. The tax roll is projected to grow by 5% for 2023-2024, then decrease to 0% for 2024-2025 and then increase to 2% through 2027-2028.

A final budget hearing will be presented on June 20-21.