Reflecting on a difficult year, Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett says a new set of challenges awaits after the clock strikes midnight New Year’s Day. As the Southern California county grapples with a $200 million budget deficit, its board of supervisors is bracing for more financial hardship with the Dec. 31 expiration of the federal CARES Act. Exacerbating the issue is a lack of support for municipalities in the recently approved $900 billion federal stimulus package, she said. “The basic stimulus package coming from the federal level doesn’t provide a lot of funding directly to local municipalities, meaning states and counties,” Bartlett told The Epoch Times. “And I find that an extreme hardship financially and otherwise, because as of Dec. 31, the CARES Act funding and other funding sources are eliminated. They’re gone. And yet we still have to provide a lot of very significant high-dollar services to the public …