MOUNDSVILLE - A surplus in the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority's coffers will not prevent the agency from raising the daily fees counties pay for housing inmates - despite the fact that county officials say the fees already are a major problem for them.
Instead, authority officials maintain its $11 million surplus is actually keeping jail fees from increasing at a faster pace.
Joseph Thornton, deputy cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, told The Intelligencer the authority does have an $11 million surplus for fiscal 2009. He said that while the authority has a $19 million reserve, the $11 million was rolled back into operating capital for the past year, and this kept the daily costs of housing an inmate at $47.53 - an amount paid by the county where an arrest was made.
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A corrections officer escorts inmates on cleaning detail through the Northern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility at Moundsville on Friday. Fees that counties pay for housing inmates at the facility are set to increase in July.
By doing that, the regional authority was able to lower the cost last year from $48.50 to $47.53. If the authority had not rolled that money back into operations, the cost would have gone up, Thornton said.
In July, the daily jail fee per inmate will go up to $48.25, even though the authority has rolled $8 million back into its excess funds for fiscal 2010, Thornton said. He said reasons for the hike include substantial increases in utility costs as well as for the Public Employees Insurance Agency, general operations and a three-year pay raise commitment from the West Virginia Legislature for authority employees. This is the final year for those raises, Thornton said, noting that employees got $2,000 the first and second years and will receive $1,000 this year.
"You have costs in general going up," Thornton said. "Those are all things in the budget. A budget is just that. If we overestimate and we have a reserve, it goes back to assist the counties. Doing away with the reserve would not be good business."
According to state law, the authority is allowed to keep a minimum of about $19 million, enough to cover three months of operational expenses. Thornton said that money is necessary in case counties default in their regional jail payments, as some have. While he could not provide the exact amounts that each county currently owes, he noted there are a "couple" of counties that are behind, adding that they are making a concerted effort to pay.
The surplus recently came into question after Cabell County Commissioner Scott Bias said the commission had calculated the authority had $30 million in its accounts after requesting and receiving financial information from the authority. But Thornton said Bias did not take into consideration the fact that the authority can, by law, have at least $19 million in its accounts.
Like Bias, many commissioners and other county officials have spoken out against the July increase, saying the money saved from lower jail fees could go toward necessary county projects. In Charleston earlier this week, the jail fee increase was a topic of discussion for the West Virginia Association of Counties during its yearly meeting.
Marshall County Sheriff and WVAOC President John Gruzinskas said jail fees are draining county budgets. He noted that the increase is a major concern among county officials. He said the association is working to develop a solution to the problem and bring it to the West Virginia Legislature.
Thornton added it's the trickle-down effect of the economy that is the problem.
"I understand that county budgets are tight, but they have to realize that we have bills to pay, too," Thornton said.