Cochise County supervisors weigh reversing Sierra Vista facility swap as jail district faces $667,000 shortfall

County budget staff told the Cochise County Board of Supervisors on May 23 that the county's jail district faces a funding gap of roughly $667,000 for the coming budget year and asked the board for guidance on whether to cover the shortfall from the general fund or the jail district sales tax.

The maintenance-of-effort transfer from the general fund, which staff described as statutorily required, was characterized in the presentation as $6.7 million. Staff said total revenue including operations and the jail tax is about $7.0 million, while projected expenses total about $7.4 million. The sheriff's office submitted discretionary funding requests the presentation listed at roughly $288,000, producing a remaining deficit of about $667,000, county staff said.

Why this matters: supervisors said the way the county covers the deficit will affect the general fund's contingency and the county's reliance on the jail district tax. Board members pressed staff and sheriff's office representatives for more up-to-date population and case-flow data, floor plans and staffing justifications before approving recurring hires or transfers of recurring costs into the jail district budget.

Presentation and options

Ms. Gilman, county budget staff, walked supervisors through the jail district revenue and expenditure figures presented to the board. She said the county could increase the maintenance-of-effort transfer above the current $6.7 million or draw the difference from the half-cent jail sales-tax revenue earmarked to the jail district; she asked the board which option it preferred or whether it wanted other direction.

The presentation also identified line-item requests the…