Butler County Sheriff's budget 'going backwards'

Shortcomings in revenue will necessitate the Butler County Sheriff’s Department eating into its dwindling reserves to cover a nearly $250,000 shortfall in its 2019 budget.

“The (projected) revenue from our law enforcement (sales) tax was basically the same as last year’s; it’s not growing any,” Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs explained.

Projected revenue of $1.7 million from the county’s one-quarter cent sales tax dedicated to law enforcement purposes is included in the department’s $3.4 million budget for 2019. The county’s budget hearing is set for later this month and must be approved before the end of January.

In 2018, that sales tax reportedly brought in $8,000 less than its projected $1.7 million.

The department’s total projected revenue for 2019 is $3,464,400.

Included with the sales tax money is $500,000 from general revenue and about $1.2 million in money generated by the department from what Dobbs described as “housing prisoners, Probation and Parole food contract, civil process, things like that.”

As the sales tax revenue continues to remain flat, Dobbs said, “inflation grows, costs grow (and) more of that (revenue) heads out to Eight Points,” resulting in “less money you get to spend.”

A portion of the department’s sales tax money is owed to the city’s tax incremental financing district to pay the developers of the Eight Points retail area. All taxing districts, including the county’s law enforcement tax, must contribute to payments to the developers.

In 2018, the sheriff’s department reportedly paid $98,814.29 to the TIF from its sales tax revenues. That amount was up from $67,089.93 paid in 2017.

A $100,000 expenditure to the TIF is among the $3,713,521.70 in projected expenditures for 2019.

“The little bit of reserve money we have in the bank will be eaten into,” Dobbs said. “We have good months for sales tax, and there are bad months, and during those bad months, we struggle to make payroll.

“There was one month (in 2018), we got below $700 in our bank account. … It’s very scary when the money gets that low,” especially when there are 45 employees and 140 prisoners to feed and take care of 24 hours a day.

“Food costs go up, materials for repairs, vehicle repairs, everything goes up,” Dobbs said. “When the tax base is shrinking or staying the same, you’re going backwards.”

Dobbs said if a large piece of equipment breaks down, “certain items can be anywhere from $30-40,000” to replace, “particularly our 911 equipment. It’s antiquated and obsolete.

“If we were to have an equipment failure, we would have to basically start from scratch and buy all new equipment because the equipment we’re working with, it can’t be serviced or repaired.”

Dobbs said his department continues to subsidize the 911 center, which otherwise “wouldn’t be operational because there is not ample money from the 911 taxes” to cover operational costs.

Tax money being collected on land-line phones for 911 is expected to drop from $80,000 to $60,000 in 2019. Cellphones are not taxed for 911 services.

The cost for a new dispatch console, the sheriff said, is about $30,000.

In preparing his department’s budget, “one of the biggest things we cut is new equipment and new cars,” Dobbs said.

The department’s fleet of vehicles is “not in bad shape because we continue to replenish it with used or prior salvaged vehicles,” Dobbs said. “But, as far as new vehicles, we haven’t had a new vehicle since I don’t know when … it’s been several years.”

Also cut in this year’s budget is the county’s canine program “due to the fact we need that officer in the rotation” on the road, Dobbs explained.

“It’s just a matter or priority,” he said. “I wish we could afford to have someone work and maintain a canine, but it’s not feasible.”

To keep the canine program going and maintain patrols would mean hiring another deputy, Dobbs said.

“Our call volume is too high to dedicate someone to using a canine,” Dobbs said.

Canine handler, Cpl. James “Bo” Skinner, will return to patrol-related duties.

Dobbs said plans for expanding the booking area in the jail to improve the security and safety of correction officers booking inmates have been put on hold for now.

At this time, Dobbs said, no staff cuts are planned; however, it’s “not beyond the realm of possibly that someone might be laid off mid year.”

Every year, Dobbs said, the department’s “start-up money” gets smaller and smaller.

“We’ve got a lot of front-end bills” that are paid at the beginning of the year, including worker’s compensation and liability insurances, said Dobbs.

After paying the $200,000 for those two bills, then “you sit and wait all year long, trying to get the money back up, worrying you won’t have the money to pay paychecks,” Dobbs said.

During the budget process, Dobbs said, Butler County’s commissioners “pretty much” have concurred with “everything we were doing.”

Dobbs described this as the “best commission we have had to work with. It’s definitely good in hard times to have people you can work with and communicate with.”