When Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown announced this afternoon that she wants to maintain funding for the Orenda Center drug and alcohol treatment program, Orenda Center supporters applauded. But Brown asked them to stop.

"Don't clap," she said, "This only means that some other program will have to go. . . For every hurrah, there will be a tear shed."

I dropped by the Board of Supervisors budget hearing this afternoon and soon learned that the supervisors are engaged in a thankless task. Their job is not keep the good programs and unload the rest. Their job is to reduce or eliminate worthy programs because tax revenues are declining and because local government is left with the scraps dispensed by a dysfunctional state government.

Health services director Rita Scardacci described the options: "One reduction is more horrible than another," she said.

Often, the short-term savings will lead to increased costs - in monetary and human terms - in future years, but government is broke with no prospect of improved fortunes any time soon.