A $12.588 million budget for 2012 is expected to be approved by the Jefferson County Quorum Court during their meeting Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the county courthouse.
That figure includes a little more than $9 million for county general and another $3.5 million for the county road department, and is less than one percent more than what the county’s legislative body approved for this year.
County Judge Mike Holcomb said the increases are the result of a hike in insurance premiums the county has to pay for employees, and salaries for employees of the Office of Emergency Management that were formerly subsidized by the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.
More than half of the 2012 budget is devoted to the costs of housing prisoners at the adult jail and juvenile detention center.
On the subject of the juvenile center, the justices of the peace are expected to consider a revised 2012 budget after rejecting the one that had previously been submitted, sending it back and instructing juvenile officials to cut the budget by $300,000.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The appointment of Chuck Fuller and Al Lowry to the the board of the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum Commission to fill existing vacancies is also expected to be approved, as is a request by Circuit Judge Berlin C. Jones that will allow Jones to be issued a credit card for the First Division of Circuit Court with a $5,000 limit. Jones will personally guarantee the card and no county funds will be involved.
In addition to the county general and road department budgets, the Quorum Court is expected to approve 2012 budgets for a number of other agencies and organizations not funded directly from county general.
Those agencies include:
• A $565,520 budget for education programs at the juvenile detention center.
• A $600,000 budget for the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Library system.
• A $24,500 budget for the FINS (Families In Need of Services) and Truancy fund, which is funded by grant monies from the Pine Bluff, Dollarway, Watson Chapel and White Hall school districts.
• A $447,600 budget for the public defender’s office.
• A $600,000 budget to cover juror fees for the circuit courts.
• A $574,412 budget for Jefferson County District Court.
• A $26813 budget for a part-time environmental enforcement officer.
• A $51,300 budget for the Tri-County Drug Task Force.
• A $1,861,556 budget for MECA (Metropolitan Emergency Communications Association), with funding from the various entities that use the dispatch service, as well as money collected on phone bills for both land line and cellular service.