By Billy Davis

Panola County supervisors concluded their fourth and final budget meeting Tuesday evening, voicing tepid approval of a proposed 2011 budget.

An expected shortfall of $799,884 was shrunk to $636,241 thanks to last-minute budget trimming by department heads led by the sheriff’s department.

The fiscal year begins October 1 and supervisors have been working against a state-mandated deadline of September 15.

 The 2011 budget for county government will be formally approved September 13, at the Second District meeting, after a mandatory public hearing is held that morning.

The budget includes $10.9 million in budgeted expenditures with budgeted revenue of $10.3 million, Administrator Kelley Magee reported after the meeting.

Panola County government is not seeking a millage increase, but the North Panola and South Panola school districts are requesting more revenue, which raises the millage.

South Panola’s revenue request will increase millage 2.48 mills.

North Panola’s budget request will increase millage by .07 mills.

Shortfall falls short

Prior to the final budget meeting, Magee was asking supervisors to approve $232,000 in cuts, which would shrink the shortfall to $568,000, The Panolian has reported.

Although Magee’s forecasts have shown a half-million dollar shortfall, supervisors have sounded mostly upbeat. That’s because $568,000 is the same shortfall forecast in 2009 for the current fiscal year, which is actually expected to finish in the black on September 31.

Magee is known to budget conservatively, which eased supervisors’ concerns that county government would overspend this year. She said recently that the county should limp through 2011 if its forecasted shortfall mirrors the current year.

After the most recent budget cuts, the county shortfall is still $68,241 short of Magee’s suggested balance.

“I felt good about it,” board president Gary Thompson said of the proposed budget.

“I feel like we’re probably in the same spot we were in a year ago,” he said, referring to last year’s lean budget.   

Magee also told The Panolian this week that the proposed budget includes four one-time expenditures:  two court-mandated salary adjustments, and costs for the November 2 election and post-U.S. Census redistricting. The four expenditures total $239,000, she said.

“Those are one-time costs that will not be in the 2012 budget,” she pointed out.

A sheriff showdown

A flurry of last-minute budget cuts sliced the projected shortfall by $143,643, led by $51,500 in cuts from the sheriff’s department.

Other departments that cut their budgets included the coroner, emergency management, and the welfare department, according to figures provided to supervisors Tuesday.

The $4.5 million sheriff’s department budget, the largest in Panola County government, pays for operation of the jail, and patrol and investigations. Sixty-six full-time employees and 14 part-timers work for the sheriff’s department.

As expected, interim Sheriff Otis Griffin was asked to remove $85,000 from his budget, allocated for three new patrol cars and some equipment, and instead use drug-seized funds to pay for the expenditure.

Supervisor Kelly Morris did the asking.

Griffin protested the cut. He explained first that the sheriff’s department needs new vehicles, since several have at least 200,000 miles. Two vehicles have more than 300,000 miles, he said.

Fifty-six automobiles are inventory of the sheriff’s department, with two on loan to county government, a sheriff’s spokesman later told The Panolian. 

Griffin went on to explain that the seized fund budget, presently at $192,000, is used as a reserve for the department, much like county government’s reserves.

Sheriff’s administrative assistant Robbie Haley further explained that $100,000 of the seized funds is locked in a CD, apparently unable to be touched.

The sheriff’s department has used seized funds and grants to purchase vehicles, not general fund monies, since 2008, Haley also explained.

Because the seized funds come from drug enforcement, they need to be put back into that effort, not used to buy vehicles, Deputy Chief Andy Estridge then told supervisors.

“It makes us better prepared on the interstate,” agreed Griffin. “We need the proper equipment in order to do that.”

Some of the seized funds were used recently to send deputies to advanced training in New Orleans, Griffin noted.

To further make their point, Griffin asked Haley to point out that funds have been “put back in the budget” in 2010 through the sheriff’s department.  Those funds total $729,469, Haley reported.

But supervisors still sought a compromise, and Griffin agreed to cut the $85,000 to $50,000, enough to purchase two new patrol cars.

Morris asked, unsuccessfully, for Griffin to cut the request to $42,000, half of the requested amount.

Morris then asked Griffin about his stated plans to house federal inmates, which Griffin has said will bring in more revenue to county government.

Griffin said the prisoners will arrive “in the next couple months,” after paperwork is finalized.

Discussion of the sheriff’s budget, which took place over two budget meetings, was set against the backdrop of a sheriff’s race, where Griffin and other candidates are seeking a full term in 2011.

Griffin has been accompanied to the budget meetings by Chief Deputy Estridge, Haley, jail administrator Bobby Meek, and task force commander Jason Chrestman.