House File 718 continues to be the topic on many people’s tongues, as department heads meet with the Henry County Board of Supervisors to discuss their new budget. HF718 will cause Henry County to cut their budget by 1.3 million dollars. Rich McNamee, the Henry County Sheriff, proposed the new Sheriff Department budget on Tuesday, January 16th.
He was originally told that he must cut $105,000. Through careful accounting, McNamee proposed a cut of over $600,000. One example of clever saving comes from schedule changes for deputies. They will switch to 5 days on, three-days-off system, which also provides more consistency for the worker. This will save a whopping $14,000 in the first year. They will save $101,000 by foregoing 2 clerk positions, which are vacant at this time.
Sheriff McNamee would like to get something out of the deal too, asking for a new jail van. The current one has many issues and they have had it since 2009.
They are beginning to explore new ways to bring in additional revenue, such as housing federal inmates at the jail.
One guarantee is that there will be more discussion regarding department budgets as long as House File 718 is around.