ALFRED — While some details of their situations may differ, York County isn’t the only county in Maine that has been grappling with the jail consolidation law passed in 2008 and updated this past legislative session.
York County last week narrowly avoided a reduction in staff of the county’s non-jail employees by cobbling together a series of cuts, using about half of its reserve funds and tapping revenue from prisoner boarding fees based on an opinion from the county’s legal counsel.
In June, York County officials had estimated they would have to lay off 20 to 40 non-jail employees in the face of a fiscal emergency. The estimate dwindled down to eight possible layoffs before the legal opinion arrived.
The opinion sees a short-term reprieve from state law’s requirement that jail revenue can be spent only at the jail. It essentially says that the original jail law passed in 2008 contains no language that requires jail revenues to be used strictly for correctional purposes. That means the county may use jail revenues that accumulated from Jan. 1 to June 30 this year, as long as the money is used by Sept. 15, according to the legal opinion tendered by Gene Libby. That date is when an amendment clearly spelling out that surplus jail funds cannot be expended for non-jail use goes into effect.
In Somerset County, where a new jail went on line at the end of October, commissioners are grappling with the use of upwards of $700,000 they tucked away in a jail reserve account. Chairman Robert Dunphy said the three-member panel is looking for a ruling on whether they can use the money to reduce the tax burden. Dunphy pointed out that the county’s new jail hasn’t been in use for a full year yet and so costs of running it are estimates.
“If we can use it (to reduce the tax burden), we’ll probably use it next year,” he said.
Phil Roy, a former Somerset County Commissioner who sits on that county’s budget committee is a member of the Working Group of the state Board of Corrections. He said the Somerset County budget committee is looking to have the surplus used to lower taxes.
And as far as York County’s situation is concerned, Roy said while he agrees that the intent of the original law was to restrict jail boarding revenues for jail use, the 2008 version of the statute did not spell that out.
“I agree with the (legal) opinion from York County,” he said in a telephone interview late law week. “Having sat on the working group, I know the holes in (the original law.)”
Board of Corrections chairman Neale Duffett did not return telephone calls or an e-mail seeking comment.
Associate Commissioner of Corrections Denise Lord said the department has asked for guidance from the Office of the Attorney General.
“They can use whatever is unexpended revenue, regardless of its source,” she said Monday afternoon. “If they are running revenues in excess of expenditures ”¦ that’s my understanding.”
Lord said there have been some positive aspects of the jail consolidation law that melds, to some degree, the county and state corrections systems. She noted there are no jail construction projects on the horizon, whereas before the law, three or four were planned. She also noted that the jail boarding rates have been reduced, something she sees as a positive step.
In the meantime, the consolidation process continues.
“We’re all adjusting,” said Lord of the new law.
— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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