Tight budget might mean big cuts: Sheriff's patrols, DNA tests, drug programs all at risk

Dan Horn
Cincinnati Enquirer
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Hamilton County budget.

To hear Hamilton County’s law enforcement officials tell it, the budget cuts expected this year would create more than a colossal headache for their accounting departments.

They would cause a kind of budget apocalypse not seen since the Great Recession.

Sheriff’s patrols would be cut in three townships. Hundreds of criminals would be freed without supervision. Court cases would be delayed. Funerals would be postponed. Heroin treatment would be canceled. Terrorists and mobsters would face fewer obstacles.

Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco called the proposed cuts “nothing short of disastrous.

Sheriff Jim Neil said they would have a “devastating impact” on law enforcement.

Is the future really this bleak?

The short answer is, probably not. But that doesn’t mean the outlook is sunny, either. The county budget is in a bad place right now because of cuts in state aid, the heroin epidemic and two riverfront stadiums gobbling up sales tax revenue.

Two county commissioners, Todd Portune and Denise Driehaus, wanted to increase the sales tax to solve the budget woes, but they withdrew the plan after a strong, bipartisan backlash.

County officials predict a $29 million deficit in 2019 if county departments, including those connected to law enforcement, spend what they did in 2018. If they spend more, as many want to do, that deficit would rise to about $42 million.

Because law enforcement consumes more than two-thirds of the county’s operating budget, those departments are the first targets when budgets get tight.

Those departments include the courts, the prosecutor’s office, the public defender’s office, the coroner and the sheriff, whose office alone accounts for about $83 million of the county’s projected $257 million budget next year.

The dire predictions come in the form of impact statements each department is asked to submit before county commissioners approve a budget. The Enquirer dug into the statements to determine what’s at risk and what commissioners might do about it.

The Sheriff

Neil wants his budget to increase by $6 million next year, to $88 million. He said he needs the money to run the jail, pay his deputies, investigate drug dealers and combat the heroin epidemic.

Commissioners have countered with an $8 million cut to his budget.

Neil has more leeway on his budget than many other elected leaders because state law requires commissioners to provide adequate money to run the jail and preserve the peace. His deputies are paid under union contracts, which must be honored, and judges send criminals to his jail, which must keep running.

But other parts of his budget are vulnerable.

Neil said those programs include the electronic monitoring program, which keeps about 300 criminals out of jail but under supervision via electronic ankle bracelets. If the budget cut goes through, Neil said, the monitoring program could die.

He said the sheriff’s role in county-wide task forces on heroin, organized crime and violent crime would be cut by half. And the sheriff would pull out of the Greater Cincinnati Fusion Center, which deals with national and international threats, such as terrorism.

Neil said a heroin treatment program at the jail, which is being built with state and local money, also would be on the chopping block.

One of the most visible hardships, Neil said, would be in Harrison, Crosby and Whitewater townships, where sheriff’s patrols would end. Deputies still would respond to emergencies in those communities, but regular patrols would only happen if those townships paid for them, as many others already do.

Commissioners could tap the county’s $26 million reserve fund to cover the cost of programs they don’t want to lose, but that’s not a long-term solution.

The Courts

For Hamilton County’s courts, the annual budget set by the county is more of a guideline than a rule. As an independent branch of government, the courts aren't bound by the budget set by commissioners.

Most courts trimmed staff and expenses after the recession, but they are unlikely to comply with the millions of dollars in additional cuts recommended by the county this time around.

In the Municipal and Common Pleas courts, the commissioners are seeking a $2.2 million reduction.

Court Administrator Pat Dressing reminded commissioners in his impact statement that the courts aren’t obligated to accept such cuts. If the judges believe the requested cuts would hinder their ability to do their work, they can sue to get the money they need.

“The County must provide necessary funding for the fundamental public services provided by the courts,” Dressing said.

The Prosecutor and Coroner

Prosecutor Joe Deters, whose office spent about $15 million last year, is facing a budget cut of $2.6 million next year, which he said would cost him 47 of his 115 attorneys. But there's little risk of that happening.

Deters reports to the courts and his budget is approved by the judges. And since the courts set their own budget, Deters' office isn't subject to the same budget pressures as other county departments.

"We will tell the judges what we need to operate," Deters said. "The commissioners have to figure out how to fund it."

Sammarco, the coroner, isn't so fortunate. Although her office performs crucial law enforcement work, such as DNA, firearms and drug testing, she's facing a $1.1 million cut to her $5.1 million budget.

If that happens, she said, trials would be delayed because it would take longer to process evidence and funerals would be delayed because it would take longer to complete work necessary to release bodies to families.

She said DNA testing and possibly firearms testing could be eliminated if the budget cut is approved.

Sammarco said cutting so much could cost the county more in the long run, because the crime lab brings in about $1 million a year to the county's general fund.

She said the lab also offers drug testing and other work that would cost more and take more time if the county had to pay others to do it, which could jeopardize investigations and prosecutions.

"You're going to have a really hard time putting criminals behind bars without our local crime lab here," Sammarco said.

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