County commissioners complained Tuesday about the costs to the county and few benefits they see in the entire state corrections unification plan.
Chairman Bill Blodgett said, “Being parochial, I want to see some benefits for Lincoln County. We’re here to represent Lincoln County to make sure the money spent here is spent in an efficient way.”
Blodgett criticized the state for its handling of the consolidation process during the board’s regular meeting in a give and take hashing of the current situation with the sheriff, including the state Board of Corrections (BOC) indecision about county jail budgets that officials say has left Two Bridges Regional Jail in a straight jacket fiscally.
“Who are the beneficiaries of the time spent?” he asked. “What are the benefits for Lincoln County? I haven’t seen anything done that’s saved Lincoln County anything.”
Sheriff Todd Brackett, who serves on the BOC’s Working Group, argued the state’s consolidation plan to make corrections unified does hold some benefits.
“It’s kind of unfair to say there are no direct benefits to the people of Lincoln County,” Brackett said. “While wrought with problems, there have been some things experienced in some areas I’m not sure would happen otherwise.”
Brackett remains on the Working Group because as president of the Maine Sheriffs’ Association, the organization wants him to stay as a voice.
“Until legislation changes, the board is going to make decisions that impact us, and I need to stay at the table until the process changes,” he said.
During the discussion, Blodgett focused his comments on the cost to the counties for setting up the whole new unified system.
“This is more of an expense for the counties than is represented,” he said. “The whole purpose was to solve a state problem, not a county problem. How much time is being spent to have a quote ‘saving’ when the savings is very questionable.”
County administrator John O’Connell criticized the state for not making allowance for more funding for the BOC and said the state should put some real money in for its work.
Calling the consolidation plan “a piñata,” O’Connell said, “It’s just a screen behind which things are happening. There’s no reason we need this huge organization managing this whole thing.”
O’Connell called the present operation a “top-heavy, clumsy organization.”
An email from Multi-county Jail Authority board member Katharine Martin-Savage received board response due to her reaction to a letter to the editor seeming to cite York County as the only loser in the consolidation plan to redefine the state corrections system.
“I was surprised to read in the Sunday Telegram of July 5 that York County ‘appears to be the only loser in a plan to redefine state correction’,” she said. “Lincoln County is most definitely a loser in this process.”
Martin-Savage said Lincoln County’s cap for its share of the operation of Two Bridges Regional Jail was frozen at $3.2 million. She complained the figure reflects the cost involved in the new facility start-up and not the current operation.
“The correct number should be $2.67 million,” she said.
Another problem she cited concerns the state’s delay in making a decision on the $3.5 million it promised to the counties for operation expenses above the caps it mandated.
“They have not done this, and there is definitely a question about their ability to meet this obligation,” she said. “They have deferred this decision until early August. Nor have they approved the much scrutinized county and regional budgets for fiscal year 2010.”
Martin-Savage also listed the $140 million property tax burden increase over the next two years because of reduction in revenue sharing, cutting property tax relief rebates, and cutting school funding.
“Also, the $65 million in property taxes [is] being spent on county correction now controlled from Augusta,” she said.
She also mentioned the issue of the state’s payment for its inmates at Two Bridges Regional Jail, which is below other inmate payments from the counties and elsewhere.
“Yes, the taxpayers will pick up the tab,” she said. “What happened to local control? Who believes Augusta has the answers?”
Judging from a comment during the board discussion Tuesday, Sheriff Brackett agrees with that assessment of the jail inmate costs.
“Those issues have to be ironed out,” he said. “It doesn’t even pass the straight face test.”
