Sheriff Stallman Asks Commissioners to Rethink Budget

Sheriff Stallman Asks Commissioners to Rethink BudgetBrazoria County Sheriff Bo Stallman is asking county leaders to give his department more money before they vote on next year's budget on Tuesday. His office asked for about $39.8 million, but the proposed budget gives it about $35.2 million, which is roughly $4.5 million less. Most of that gap is in money for salaries and benefits, which means fewer new deputies and staff. Stallman argued that the county has grown to more than 419,000 people, but his office has only 438 positions. He compared that to Galveston County, which has fewer people (about 358,000) but 561 sheriff's office positions. He also said that over the last five years, commissioners have approved only about 18 percent of the new positions he asked for.Stallman also pointed to the county jail as a major concern. The jail has held about 990 inmates on average this year and passed 1,000 on the day he spoke to commissioners. A recent study found the jail is short 56 workers just for watching inmates. "This is not a future problem. This is today's problem," Stallman said. The jail has its own separate budget, which asked for about $32.2 million and is set to receive about $31.2 million, with the difference also coming from salaries.At the same time, commissioners are trying to keep taxes under control. They plan to lower the tax rate slightly, from 30.48 cents to 30.25 cents per $100 of property value. Even so, the county will collect about $14.3 million more than last year because home values have gone up and new property has been added. For the average homeowner, that means paying about $21 more in county taxes. Stallman said he understands that commissioners must balance the needs of every department and the cost to taxpayers, but he urged them to plan for where the county will be in 10 or 20 years. For now, he tells his employees to keep going because help is on the way.