With $645K owed by state as BCSD fights daily battle to pay bills, staff

Butler County Sheriff’s Department will pay extra for its liability insurance for 2020 because officials do not have enough cash on hand to make the nearly $200,000 lump sum payment at the same time as other beginning of the year start up costs.

Officials say it is a “daily” process to monitor cash on hand in order to make payroll and pay bills, hindered by a more than $645,000 bill owed by the state related to prisoner transportation and housing.

“Foremost, the biggest (budget) concern is the start-up costs, the parts of the budget that are front loaded,” including liability insurance and workers’ compensation, explained Sheriff Mark Dobbs. “This is on top of payroll.”

For 2020, Dobbs said, the department is going to “bust up our liability payment.”

Instead of paying the estimated $198,500 at once, he said, the department will pay half and then pay the remaining balance quarterly.

“And, in doing so, we had to pay extra,” Dobbs said. “There was no option. We did not have money on hand to pay that one lump sum and workers’ comp and payroll.”

The insurance and workers’ comp are among the projected expenditures of nearly $3.8 million for 2020.

The projected revenue for 2020 is $3.7 million.

That amount includes $1.8 million from the county’s one-quarter cent sales tax dedicated to law enforcement purposes and $500,000 from the county’s general revenue fund.

The department is expected to end 2020 in the black, unlike it did in 2019.

It ended the last fiscal year nearly $88,000 in the red. The department’s actual revenue was $3,433,781.50, and it’s actual expenditures were $3,521,408.17.

The law enforcement sales tax brought in $1.75 million, which was up from what had been projected. As a result, the department was not $250,000 in the red as originally predicted.

Daily monitoring

of expenses

“It’s basically the same situation as last year; it’s a daily monitoring process as far as how much money we have on hand,” the sheriff explained. “Do we have enough to pay bills and make payroll?”

Kathy Maclin, the department’s administrative assistant, said she balances accounts with the treasurer’s and clerk’s office every Friday now versus monthly because “there are things they pay,” such as retirement and health insurance, that she only sees in provided reports.

“Each month, we sit and hope for state reimbursement to come in, for our sales tax to come in, and we rely heavily on the quarterly general revenue transfer,” Dobbs explained.

State fails to pay bills

The state currently owes Butler County $645,223.28, Maclin said.

“We got money in January of this year,” but the state is still behind in its reimbursement to the county, Maclin said.

The state owes $10,944.18 for prisoner extradition from Sept. 5 to Friday, Jan. 24, and $42,972.10 for prisoner transport from April 5 to Wednesday, Maclin said.

The county is also owed $591,257 for boarding prisoners.

“We have no idea how far behind they are” on board reimbursement, Maclin.

“We don’t have the luxury to not go get prisoners from New York, California or Oregon, out of our region, and that’s something we have to spend that money and make it happen up front; however, the state is allowed to pay us back at their leisure.

“ … They order you go pick them up, keep them in jail and (say) we’ll pay you when we can.”

The sheriff’s department also no longer receives jail board fees collected from prisoners by the court system.

“The collection of jail board is now our responsibility versus the courts,” Dobbs said.

That change, he said, resulted from a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that said “jail board can’t be assessed as court costs. The courts have no jurisdiction or interest in collecting the fees anymore.”

The department received $63,333.68 in jail board for 2018; $33,683.41 in 2019 and $9,600 is projected for 2020.

The 2019 amount, according to Maclin, was lower because the courts stopped collecting the fees mid year.

Losses that hurt

Last year, Dobbs said, the department needed to replace obsolete equipment in its communications center, but had no available funds.

“Fortunately, an outside source,” the Butler County Health Department, stepped up to fund the new equipment, Dobbs said.

The county, he said, will again transfer $60,000 to the sheriff’s department to operate the 911 center.

The 911 tax collected on land-line telephones is expected to generate about $91,000 in 2020. That is down from approximately $97,000 in 2019 and $117,000 in 2018.

Cellphones are not taxed for 911 services.

“Ultimately, the revenue for 911 service is going to dry up to next to nothing,” Dobbs said.

The department, Dobbs said, still has a part-time position in communications, which “we weren’t able to replace last year and can’t replace again this year.

The department’s canine program, which was cut in 2019, will not be reinstated this year, he said.

“We have made little cuts to survive this year, but that’s a best case scenario situation,” Dobbs said. “All it would take is for a large air conditioner or some element of the jail equipment to break down to force use to make major cuts.”

The department’s “reserve” is down to about $65,000.

“There is next to no reserve to operate off of,” the sheriff said. “Sometimes, we get to a place where we are concerned about making payroll.”

Adjustments, Dobbs said, already have been made for 2021 when the department’s liability insurance due date will be in March.

“Like every year, the next year becomes more problematic,” Dobbs said. “You worry more about the coming year and any type of catastrophic repairs that have to be done to the building or jail.”