Channel adjustment in action

The ink has barely dried on the newly signed federal debt deal, but already Alameda County is braced for the worst.

Supervisors and analysts are still trying to decipher the signals from Congress about what lawmakers will cut in the coming months. But county department heads say they've already sliced all the fat off the budget since 2008, when the recession began to wreak havoc on the economy, jobs and property values.

Three years later, they're perilously close to the bone as they contend with the anticipated trickle-down effects of $2.1 trillion in cuts to federal spending over the next 10 years.

"It's a double whammy," said Supervisor Keith Carson, whose district includes Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont and six Oakland neighborhoods.

Carson said he expects a snowball effect on Alameda County as federal cuts take a toll on California's budget. If history repeats itself, he said the state will have to lean on the county, which depends on state and federal money for half its $2.5 billion budget.Mercury News

In the Kling sense, the county as to find out what is sustainable.