Tuesday 17 June 2008The Cannon County Commission’s budget committee made even more cuts into the proposed Cannon County General Fund budget for 2008-2009. Members took about $70 000.00 out of the budget and brought the Budget’s spending in excess of revenue figure down from $315 000.00 to about $245 000.00. $60 000.00 of that figure came as the result of an error being discovered in the budget which had an item coming out of the general fund which should have come out of another area. The remaining $10 000.00 came from small cuts in individual departmental budgets. Members also heard a presentation from Cannon County Jail Administrator Joe Oakley concerning State inmates. Some members of the Committee had questioned why the Sheriff was not housing as many state inmates as he had in the past. Oakley told the Committee that actually State inmates cost the County more than they make. According to Oakley it costs about $35.00 per day to house a State inmate. At this time the State of Tennessee is only reimbursing the County $32.18. Oakley told the Committee that the County is actually losing over $2.00 per day when it houses a State inmate. Oakley said State inmates are being sent off as soon as possible when they are sentenced and that the Department is only keeping a limited number to work. Oakley said that his staff is working hard to find ways to cut spending and that one member of staff is even putting himself through a grant writing class to find ways to get more money for the jail to save the taxpayers money. Oakley also said that one option the jail is investigating is housing federal inmates. The United States Government will pay anywhere from $40.00 to $90.00 per day to house their minimum security inmates. Oakley said that very few Counties in the surrounding States house such inmates and that it could prove to be a lucrative move. Members acknowledged that they needed to work on the budget further and that the budget still presented more excess spending than they liked. Members will meet again on June 24th at 6:00 p.m. in the Courtroom of the Courthouse to discuss further cuts and funding options. County Executive Mike Gannon told the Committee that he would also research revenues further to see if they might improve next year.
