Merced adopts budget, disappoints youth advocates

Merced adopted a $200 million city budget Monday that promised to add police officers but left youth advocates raw over what they see as a lack of dollars going to an advisory council of young people.

The budget is about 1 percent smaller than the previous year though the general fund has grown by almost a full percent to $39.6 million, according to city staff. The council voted 5-1 to adopt the budget with Councilman Noah Lor voting ‘no.” Mayor Stan Thurston was absent.

Youth advocates had called for months for a sixfold increase to the Youth Council’s budget, which would have grown to $75,000 if advocates got their way. Marilyn Mochel, a registered nurse who works with Merced nonprofits, said the amount of money being asked for the Youth Council was small compared to the overall spending.

“In the big scheme of the total city budget, it’s such a small amount of funding,” she said. “The answers are with the youth.”

The Youth Council is made up of seven teenagers who live in town. Advocates said improving the Youth Council is a way to improve the lives of young people.

Some 31 percent of people living in Merced are younger than 18, according to the latest U.S. Census numbers available.

For four years, advocates have been coming to the council for more funding for programs that benefit young people, according to Rachelle Abril, the founder of the nonprofit Distinguished Outreach Services.

“I’m not going to back down,” she said. “You give us a little and we’ll show you a lot.”

This story will be updated.

This story was originally published June 20, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Merced adopts budget, disappoints youth advocates."