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Juvenile officials warn 4.1% state cut could force staffing reductions
Summary
Juvenile Department officials told the Nueces County Commissioners Court that a newly announced 4.1% reduction in state aid — about $85,000 for the county — will force program cuts unless the court offsets the loss; the department also pressed for $20,720 in requested increases for monitoring, staffing and kitchen charges.
Homer, the juvenile department’s presenter, told the Nueces County Commissioners Court on June 22 that a 4.1% cut in state aid, revealed to the county the prior week, will reduce the county’s juvenile services allocation by about $85,000 for the biennium.
“Our across-the-biennium cut is 4% … For us in Nueces County, that’s gonna equate to approximately $85,000,” Homer said, noting the county had budgeted most of that money for salaries.
The juvenile department asked the court to approve a set of smaller, previously planned increases that total $20,720: $10,000 for additional electronic monitoring units, a $4,720 pay adjustment to align a boot-camp captain’s pay with an assistant superintendent in detention, and a $6,000 change in accounting for kitchen equipment charges that Aramark’s contract requires the juvenile department to pay.
Homer said electronic monitoring is a cost-effective alternative to detention, at roughly $3 a day versus more than $200 a day for detention, and asked the court to consider keeping a vacant probation-officer position to avoid service disruption.
Several commissioners asked the department to produce a short cost-savings analysis that ties additional monitors to projected reductions in detention days and detention spending. “If your argument is that this is going to save us some money down the line, then I would think you need to bring us that and show us some savings in the detention budget,” a commissioner said.
Homer said he has frozen hiring on at least one vacant probation officer post pending clarity about the state allocation and the court’s decision.
The court did not take a formal vote on the juvenile requests at the workshop; staff said the county awaits official allocations from the state and will present options in future budget sessions.
