Dodge County Joint Committee Suggests General Fund To Cover Sheriff’s Office Shortfall

(Juneau) Both the Dodge County Finance and Judicial and Public Protection Committees advanced a resolution Friday to address a shortfall in the sheriff’s office budget. The county board voted last year to close the old jail, referred to as J-Pod, reducing a longtime revenue stream and leading to a $496-thousand-dollar budgetary deficit for 2018. For years, the old jail house had housed federal inmates for money. The resolution suggests using monies from the General Fund to cover the shortfall. Finance Committee Member David Guckenburger says before any decision is made there needs to be more discussions to ensure this issue does not happen in 2019. Finance Committee Chair Dave Frohling says the only item on the table for discussion Friday was addressing the shortfall and once that is handled their attention will shift to monitoring the 2019 budget to make sure there is not another deficit. The resolution will be up for a vote by the county board during this month’s meeting. Frohling says the committee is anticipating roughly $2.1-million dollars in 2018 surplus to be returned from county departments to the General Fund. He says that will put the General Fund in a good position heading to next year’s budget preparation.