It's budget time for Vernon County Commission

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Vernon County Commissioners held its second day of working on the the 2016 Vernon County budget, meeting with Vernon County Sheriff Jason Mosher and Vernon County's Recorder of Deeds Doug Shupe.

During the meeting with Mosher and the commissioners, the two parties went over seven budget request documents. After going over the first document, Departmental Revenues and Expenditures awarded the Sheriffs office with $2,385,515 to run the jail.

The commissioners set the Chief Jailer's 2016 estimate at $32,118.39 and enough money for each of the 10 jailers to earn $24,566.05 in 2016.

The department will be allotted $125,000 for prisoner's meals and $120,000 for prisoner medical expenses.

Mosher said after the budget meeting, his department's jail brought in $1,195,000, with $800,000 of that money coming from other counties for housing their prisoners. The other $395,000 came from state reimbursements.

The revenue made each year, Mosher said, is given "directly to the county, and no matter how much we make, the county decides what to give us to operate."

Mosher said the amount of money appropriated this year was because of the dispatch being under Vernon County Sheriff's Office.

While going over the Law Enforcement training fund, Mosher and the commissioners decided to include $500 of estimated revenues for this fund, allowing a $4,300 deduct appropriation for 2016.

During the discussion of the inmate security fund, Mosher talked about a new transportation van bought from commissary from other counties. The department was also allotted $3,000 for training on inmate security.

The commissioners appropriated $450 to run the Vernon County Dare Fund, $2,000, to keep the United Way Dare Fund maintained and $30,000 to keep the Law Enforcement Restitution Fund operational. Presiding Commissioner, Joe Hardin, allotted $500 to help Law Enforcement Training Fund.

Mosher said although his meeting with the commissioners is over, his budgeting process is not necessarily finished.

Finally, the federal seizure fund was announced to not have any changes to its current budget. The commissioners will not add any money to it and the estimated ending balance for December 2016 is $547.21.

Mosher said he was happy with the way the meeting and budget went, but "At the end, when they put it all together and see the total budget, they can take stuff out," Mosher said. "That's their job."

Before Mosher's meeting, Doug Shupe, had a brief meeting to go over his budget for 2016. Allotting $1,237,334.37 to Shupe for Departmental Revenues and expenditures and $162,145.02 for the appropriation by object of expenditures, other appropriations were $1,500 for training, $15,400 for total equipment expenditures and $95,834.03 in total other expenditures.

The 34-minute discussion was "pretty cut and dry," Hardin said.

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