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Commissioners flag rising justice budget tied to psychological evaluations and unpaid chaplain bills
Summary
Hall County commissioners reviewed a justice budget increase driven by higher psychological-evaluation costs and debated a new $50,000 chaplain line after staff reported $12,000 in unreimbursed payments.
Hall County commissioners discussed an uptick in the justice budget that staff said reflects a spike in psychological-evaluation costs following a small number of high‑cost cases. Staff noted the justice budget rose from about $1.6 million to nearly $1.8 million, with psychological evaluations budgeted at roughly $215,000 “based off what I see in the news” and the county still holding more than $500,000 in unspent funds from prior years.
Several commissioners suggested trimming the line, with one proposing a $200,000 reduction as a reasonable cut while cautioning against eliminating all the cushion. Staff emphasized the difficulty of predicting these costs and urged caution: the expenses, they said, “come in way under what we’re budgeting” in most years, but a single case can drive expenses up substantially.
The board also discussed a new $50,000 chaplain line in the justice budget after Marla raised concern that the county has not been reimbursed for about $12,000 already paid for chaplain services. Marla said she has “sent notices twice” and that the vendor had not reimbursed the county; a commissioner said the county should stop future payments until reimbursement is resolved. No formal motion to cut or adopt a change to the justice budget was recorded during this discussion.
