The Maine Board of Corrections will not fight $335,500 in proposed budget cuts, Two Bridges Regional Jail Administrator and board chairman, Col. Mark Westrum told the Lincoln and Sagadahoc Multicounty Jail Authority Oct. 12.
Since taking office, Governor Paul LePage has ordered across the board budget cuts in most state organizations. The Governor ordered State Finance Commissioner H. Sawin Millet Jr. and the “Streamline and Prioritize Core Government Services Task Force” with coming up with $25 million in savings to help balance the state’s budget.
Previously, the Board of Corrections had recommended challenging the task force on the proposed cuts, citing unfulfilled inverse debt obligations on the part of the state legislature.
According to Westrum, as the Board paid down its outstanding debt, the state legislature was supposed to appropriate an equal amount of funds to a capital investment fund. The legislature, however, has NOT fulfilled its part of the bargain since 2008.
Westrum made the announcement after the Board learned that counties had underspent their budgets by $2.7 million in Fiscal Year 2010. With over $3 million currently in the investment fund for the next biennium, Westrum said that the Board of Corrections could have between $4.9 and $5.5 million available for capital improvement
Westrum cautioned that the $2.7 million figure was taken from unaudited figures and could change once the audit was complete.
“After much, much discussion, it was decided by the new Board of Corrections…to not put ourselves in a position where we’re pitted against the Governor and the Commissioner,” Westrum said.
Westrum said that the Board could not justify fighting a $335,000 cut when it was potentially sitting on some $5 million. The cuts could even increase to $500,000 or $1 million if the Board challenged the initial cut, Westrum said.
While the Board’s surplus prevents the $335,000 cut from causing too much damage in the short term, the surplus will only remain if the Board stays in the same fiscal position. Westrum called the situation a “Catch 22”.
“The problem will always be the next biennium, ” Westrum said. “We look good in this biennium but in the second year of the next biennium… we’re in deep trouble because the legislature might not fund a $6-$7 million dollar budget. “
“I just think today as we sit in these economic times how can we tell the streamlining committee that we can’t come up with $335,000 when we’re sitting on potentially $2.7 million?”
This was Westrum’s first Jail Authority meeting since taking over as Chairman of the recently reshuffled Board Sept. 28.
