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State backs off sheriff takeover
Patrick excluded Nantucket County from a proposed state takeover of the county sheriffs' offices in a supplemental budget he filed with the House of Representatives in May. "We're going to keep rolling the way we have been," said Bretschneider. "I will be the last county sheriff." The problem is, the House doesn't exactly support the bill as written. "We're in favor of the idea as a concept," said Erik Turkington, Nantucket's representative in the House. "But there are some details that need to be worked out." Turkington said he expected the language regarding the sheriff takeover to be stripped from the budget and that version would be sent back to the Patrick for consideration. "Something ought to be done, but we're not going to do it his way," said Turkington. "The financial details are important." According to Turkington, counties will still be responsible for paying each sheriff's retired employee's benefits. Turkington believes the state will continue to supply county sheriffs with supplemental funding for this fiscal year and then start the process next year, with its own bill, rather than being tucked into a supplemental budget bill. Patrick submitted the bill last year, seeking to have the state takeover the budgets of the remaining seven county sheriffs, and Nantucket was included in the bill. County sheriff's budgets would simply be a line item in the budget rather than their having to raise their own funds from deeds excise taxes. "We have to pay for our own operations out of deeds excise," said Bretschneider. "For the other sheriffs, it will be a lot easier being a line item, but for us, because we pay for our own existence, we're not a burden." Officials from Nantucket, including Bretschneider, Town Manager Libby Gibson and members of the County Commissioners went to Boston in March to lobby members of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee to exclude Nantucket from the bill and the effort seemed to work. State Senator Robert O'Leary also attended the meeting and argued on behalf of Nantucket's being excluded from the takeover bill. Patrick resubmitted the bill on May 23 with almost identical language, but Nantucket County is not mentioned in the section of the bill relating to the takeover. "I think it's a good thing," said County Commissioner Michael Kopko. "Anything we can do to preserve our county government is a good thing. We went up in March to testify and I guess they heard us." In all other counties, the county jail is funded from the sheriff's office, which generates revenue from the deeds excise fund. Since there is no jail on Nantucket and the deeds excise revenue is fairly stable, Nantucket's sheriff does not have to request additional spending from the state to cover expenses. "We have come in under budget for the past 10 years," said Bretschneider. "We still have money left over." The bill is currently in the House of Representatives where it will be examined and then passed to the Senate after a vote. The Senate will read the bill, make any changes, and then both the House and Senate will vote on the final version. A spokesman for Senator O'Leary's office said they are anticipating a swift approval of the bill, since it is the supplemental budget and needs to be passed before the summer recess. i |
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