Sheriff Could Run Out Of Cash Next Month
The state budget crunch has hit the Bristol County MA Sheriff’s Department, which like other county sheriff’s offices regularly turns to the state for supplemental funding during the fiscal year. Report from the Herald News.
“Every year, it’s the same exercise except this year they’re going to the state and the state is saying ‘We don’t have the money to pay you,’” said Bristol County Treasurer Kevin Finnerty, who predicts the department could run out of cash within weeks. Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s office has not paid inmate health care bills or prison utility bills since January so the office can pay its personnel. He estimates the department needs an extra $5.4 million through the end of June. If not, the sheriff said he’ll turn to the National Guard to take over in Bristol County …
More than a budget deficit is keeping the state from helping out, Hodgson said. The sheriff thinks the lack of supplemental funding is payback because he fought against a proposal backed by Gov. Deval Patrick to shift sheriff departments into part of the state government. Hodgson said he has written to Patrick four times since November to warn that if county-run sheriff’s offices aren’t given better funding that services will need to be cut. The governor has not responded, he said. Hodgson is planning to write again, telling Patrick that he wants to meet with the National Guard to create a contingency plan, he said. “I don’t know how much more clear I can be.”
Finnerty predicts the sheriff’s office will run out of money by May 7, or perhaps a week later, using conservative revenue estimates. The department owes $1.4 million for inmate health care since November, according to the sheriff. “They don’t have the money to pay those bills and also pay people to watch the inmates,” Finnerty said.
County-State Issues, Economic Issues, MA Bristol County, Massachusetts