Rising costs and shrinking revenues continue to be a concern for officials in running the Mississippi County Jail, as evidenced when Sheriff Dale Cook attended Monday's Quorum Court budgeting session to present his 2014 proposals for the Sheriff's Department and the jail.
As the numbers currently stand with adjustments requested by the committee on Monday, 2014's requested budget for the jail will be nearly $400,000 over its projected revenues.
"Our revenue is down quite a bit," said Cook, "which will make it [the budgeting process] a lot more difficult. Last year, we ran 91 inmates at the low end, but right now we have 172. Some of them are waiting to go to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, so that number could get down to around 130, but that will be the average for this year. Expenses will be showing higher than normal in the jail because of that. If revenue projections stay on track for next year, we will be half a million down from 2013, and using 90 percent of that will mean a pretty big budget shortfall for the jail."
Adjustments were made in the budget to project $180,000 on jail fee arrears payments from the city of Blytheville, but no payments are being made on costs currently being accrued, according to committee Chairman Justice Michael White.
"Blytheville is making steady payments on the arrears, but nothing on the current charges until this lawsuit is settled," he said.
Blytheville recently filed a request for a declaratory judgment regarding whether or not the city is legally required to pay any jail fees.
"So we've adjusted to make our revenues from them lower," said White. "We had $300,000 in anticipated revenues from Blytheville that we can't depend on because that money's not there, it's going to lower the jail's 2014 revenues by that much. We've always had to support the jail somewhat out of county general funds, but last year we had to kick in almost $900,000 out of county general. We had written $734,000 into the budget but we will have to adjust up. There are 'shalls' and 'maybes' and the jail is one of the things we have to do. If there's a shortfall in revenue, we have to shore it up and provide."
Adjustments were also made to project county general funding $800,000 into the jail next year.
In addition to the rising costs caused by an increased inmate population, Cook said he put extra money into the budget for anticipated air conditioning issues over the summer, increase in food prices, and payments being made to the Black River juvenile facility in Batesville, where the county has had to outsource juvenile inmates when its facilities are full.
The jail's budget will be given back to Cook to make what cuts he can before it is brought back to the committee for approval.
"It seems quite simple to me," said Justice Bill Nelson. "We only have X number of dollars to work with, we pay for what we can. He's over budget, he needs to be prepared to live with what we've budgeted. It's not in general revenue to reach out and get that and also take care of everybody else sitting here just as hungry as the Sheriff's office is. The city's failure to do their part on the jail is killing us and they don't seem to care. Until someone over there wakes up and realizes that we're all in this together. But the mayor and his bunch are just obstinate about it."
In Cook's Sheriff's Department budget, requests were increased for fuel, office supplies and clothing and uniforms, to name a few; but justices asked him to shave the requests back down closer to the budgeted amounts. Cook's request for eight new cars for his department was also denied, with justices saying they could only agree to purchase six, with even that being a stretch. White said when Mayor James Sanders was serving as sheriff, he attempted to save the county money by purchasing used vehicles -- a "good intention" that left Cook with ragged equipment which he has been trying to update since he took office.
"To get back to where we can keep the fleet maintained, we need to use a combination of money from [Sen. David] Burnett and the county to purchase eight cars a year," said Cook, "so they are safe for deputies. You can keep them longer but you end up with higher maintenance costs and putting the guys at risk. When I came in, all the guys were running on slick tires, and that's not a good scene. We're better now, but still not where we need to be. I've pitched my plan, and I know you guys are the ones controlling the purse strings, but if it gets down to a point where I can't run a vehicle that's safe for that guy, then I'm not going to run it. I will do the best I can to make the budget work. We've been on a strictly cut budget for four years, and last year was the worst. On the jail fee thing, we're in a catch-22 situation, we're trying to work well with the Quorum Court and it has worked well with us, I know we've only got so many dollars to work with and we just have to figure it out."
sharris@blythevillecourier.com