The barbed wire is up and the Fannin County Jail and Sheriff's Office will soon be open.  Exactly how Fannin County Commissioners will budget a very different Fannin County Sheriff's Office in the next fiscal year will be a matter of debate in the weeks ahead.

Everyone seems to be in agreement that this budget will go to a reorganized Fannin County Sheriff's Office.  Costs and liabilities associated with the day-to-day operation of the jail will be turned over to the private company that financed construction of the facility.  Seventeen jailers will go off the Fannin County Sheriff's Office payroll and be hired by the private company that will operate the 432-bed jail.

It would appear, at least from the budget workshop Thursday afternoon, that Fannin County Commissioners Court and the Fannin County Sheriff's Office are nowhere near an agreement about the bottom line of the proposed budget.  Commissioners had hoped bringing the new jail online September 3, 2009 would lead to significant savings over last year's budget of $2.686 million for the sheriff's office. 

In the budget workshop, there was even a difference of opinion over exactly what the proposed budget requested.  When asked for the record what the proposed budget was, Fannin County Chief Deputy Kirk McMurray stated $2,680,658.11, which would be $6,000 lower than the previous budget.  Commissioner Stan Barker, however, suggested the budget was actually a little over $3.1 million.  That difference will be worked out in the days ahead.  The problem is that a county facing decreased revenues during a recession will struggle with either figure.

"Our numbers are down," Commissioner Dewayne Strickland remarked, adding that Fannin County Commissioners Court would take each department's budget into consideration before calling each department back to scrutinize each department's budget individually.

Historically, the Fannin County Sheriff's Office has the largest and most complex budget of all the county departments.  This year an already difficult budget process will be complicated by the transition to a private jail.  For example, 1/3 of line items in the sheriff's 2008-2009 budget will be discontinued in the 2009-2010 budget.

Fannin County taxpayers will still be out $45 per day for every prisoner housed at the new jail, but the county will be reimbursed $2.50 per day for every federal prisoner detained in the facility.

Chief Deputy McMurray suggested that this transition year would be the appropriate time to make line items more specific and reorganize line items for easier reference.  Generalized line items make it difficult for all parties involved to end up with a detailed breakdown of costs at the end of the year.

"A lot of our expenditures are hard to track and hard, as well, for the auditor," McMurray offered.  "This [specific line items] is a way for all of us, transparently, to say exactly where the money went."  

All county departments are hoping for a 3% pay increase and there will be one line item from the sheriff's office budget that has the potential to offer some relief.  Depending on how quickly the 432-bed jail fills up, there is a chance that inmate phone service revenue could bring in $100,000 to the General Fund in 2009-2010.

There was one positive step for Fannin County Deputies this year as the Fannin County Sheriff's Office provided firearms for the first time.  In the past, deputies were expected to furnish their own firearm and some of their other equipment.  Those firearms were purchased with drug seizure funds. 

However, starting pay for a Fannin County Deputy is still $23,063, which is well below the starting pay for a City of Bonham Police Officer.