FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted 2-1 Wednesday to approve a proposed $1.89 million spending plan for the county jail for 2016-17. They also unanimously approved the proposed $1.59 million budget for the Sheriff’s Office.
The entire county budget will be subject to review and approval by the Budget Advisory Committee once commissioners establish their budget.
It was the first time that commissioners have reviewed a jail budget since 2008 when the state consolidated county jails. The state gave the jails back to the counties last year.
The Franklin County Detention Center returned to full operations in April 2015 after being a 72-hour detention center since 2009.
Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. said his administration agonized over reducing the jail budget to $1.89 million.
The county can only tax based on the cap put in place by the state in 2008, he said. The cap was $1.62 million for Franklin County.
The state capped the amount counties can raise for jails through taxation at the 2008 level at the onset of consolidation. The law, however, does allow counties to exceed the cap by 3 percent, according to Clerk Julie Magoon.
The cap is $1.66 million for 2016-17.
The county can count on receiving $177,000 in state community corrections funds to be used to help offset the increase, Nichols said.
That will leave the county $46,000 short of covering expenses, Nichols said.
He is hoping the county will get about $40,000 from a bill passed by the Legislature last week to provide a one-time boost of $2.4 million to county jails, he said. He doesn’t know the exact amount the county would get.
However, the bill has not been signed by the governor, who has until April 29 to veto bills approved by the Legislature, Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay said. He opposed the proposed the jail budget because of unknowns and the many variables in regard to additional financial funding.
Commission Chairman Clyde Barker of Strong and Commissioner Charles Webster of Farmington favored the budget.
The proposed spending plan is based on true costs to operate the jail.
“We just cannot cut anywhere else without jeopardizing staff and inmates,” Nichols said. They are running on pretty much a bare-bones budget as it is, he said.
Magoon pointed out that unionized correction officers agreed to a less-expensive health insurance plan last year, which has saved the county a lot of money.
Webster asked about the $50,000 allotted for food at the jail since it is a $27,000 decrease from the current budget.
It was a guess last year on how much it would cost to feed the inmates, jail officials said.
By cooking homemade food, including baking bread, the jail has saved a ton of money, Maj, Doug Blauvelt, jail administrator, said.
Magoon said commissioners had to vote on the expenditures without knowing the exact anticipated revenue because the state needs to know how much it costs to run the jail.
If they don’t get as much funding as anticipated, they could transfer money from the reserve account or other accounts, she said.
The proposed Sheriff’s Office budget represents a $47,609 increase over the current $1.54 million budget.
It contains funding to give two lieutenants a raise because with raises given to unionized deputies, the two are making nearly the same amount. The amount of the actual raise will not be known until commissioners make a decision after a budget is approved.
Nichols budgeted to get four new cruisers. His request for three last year was reduced to two new cruisers by the budget panel.
The cruisers are in a three-year rotation. Nichols said he likes to trade the vehicles in when they hit 100,000 miles to get a better trade-in value.
The mileage on the cruisers that would be traded ranges from 100,000 miles to about 120,000 miles, Chief Deputy Steven Lowell said.
Webster said he would like to see a longer rotation in the future.
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