By Dan Nienaber
MANKATO — Using prisoners to make their point this time, county commissioners were at the Capitol Thursday protesting the growing financial demands they’re facing from the state.
When the state Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty needed to balance the state’s budget in 2003, some of Minnesota’s state prison responsibilities were shifted to county jails. Legislators and the governor agreed to have felons with six months or less to serve do their time in jail instead of a prison.
The problem, say county officials struggling to balance their own budgets now, is the state only pays a fraction of what it costs to keep someone in jail. The estimated state reimbursement rate for 2009 is about $9 per day when it costs an estimated $55 to $75 per day for each prisoner in Blue Earth County, said County Administrator Dennis McCoy.
It’s one of several state-imposed costs counties are trying to find funding for even though the governor also has imposed limits on property-tax levies.
“The state is saying we don’t want to pay that, we’ll just shift that to the counties and then set levy limits,” McCoy said. “That’s the frustrating part.
“It’s just added to the list of things that the state is requiring the counties to do, then blaming counties for raising property taxes — which is infuriating.”
Colleen Landkamer, Blue Earth County commissioner, was one of more than 100 commissioners and sheriffs who attended the event Thursday. She said the county paid about $63,000 to house short-term state prisoners last year and expects that amount to grow to about $131,000 next year when the county opens its new jail.
“We’re going to get $11,000 from the state and we have to make up the difference,” she said.
Alex Carey, a Pawlenty spokesman, said the reimbursement rate set by the Legislature has never covered the full cost of the short-term offender program. In addition to that funding, the state’s 87 counties also split about $80 million per year in other funding for local correctional services, he said.
“While we understand the concerns raised by the counties, they appear to be first in line for money that isn’t likely to materialize, as the state faces a projected deficit and the economy continues to struggle,” Carey said in a written response.
The problem is compounded when the jail is full and the county needs to house some of its prisoners in other jails, said Chief Deputy Mike Mauer of the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department. The department gets $9 per day for the state prisoners in the jail while its paying a fee of $60 per day to another county to take care of Blue Earth County prisoners.
The jail houses an average of two state prisoners per day while its sending an average of four county prisoners per day to other jails. The number of prisoners sent elsewhere will drop when the new jail is built, but the number of state prisoners is expected to go up.
Both Landkamer and McCoy also brought up $317,000 the county is paying in state taxes for a courthouse in its building. The court system is operated by the state.
The new courthouse is connected to the new jail, which the state has exempted from state taxes.
“They’re making us pay taxes for a courthouse we’re building for them,” McCoy said. “They’re exempting the jail, but not the courts, which they operate. It’s outrageous.”
