County to cover ‘sanctuary’ grant cuts
Programs will continue until long-term solution is found for fiscal 2018.
Travis County commissioners on Tuesday approved a plan to make up for $1.5 million in state grant funds pulled by Gov. Greg Abbott in retaliation for the sheriff ’s jail policy related to immigration — at least until the fall.
Under the plan, none of the criminal justice programs covered by state grants — which include specialty courts, victim services and juvenile justice programs, and serve more than 3,400 res- idents — will be cut.
Instead, program costs will be covered by existing departmental budgets before a long-term solution can be found during the fiscal 2018 budget planning process. Six vacant positions across departments also will be removed.
The estimated cost to continue the programs previously funded by the governor’s office from January, when the cuts took effect, to the end of September is about $800,000, according to a memo
filed by the county Planning and Budget Office.
By reorganizing and finding places where efforts were duplicated, Budget Director Travis Gatlin said his office cut the annual cost of the programs from about $1.5 million to about $1.1 million.
“I really cannot thank you all enough for finding a 30 percent efficiency gain to maintain the status quo ante at a time that ($1.5 million dollars) was cut and also found ways to keep employees on,” County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said. “This was an amazing effort. We will continue, as we always do, to look for efficiencies and effectiveness.”
Commissioners also approved a motion to allow Eckhardt to request $133,000 — about the amount needed to cover program costs from October through Nov. 15 — from Travis County Stronger Together, the community fundraiser created earlier this year to support grantfunded programs.
Commissioner Brigid Shea said she appreciated seeing the data in the county staff ’s report, such as graduation and recidivism rates, that supported the funding of the criminal justice programs.
“There’s a great deal of data to underscore the effectiveness of these programs and that it makes so much more sense to invest in preventative programs that help people rebuild their lives instead of throwing them in jail and passing the cost on to taxpayers,” Shea said.
The court’s lone conservative, Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, who diverges from the other commissioners on the so-called “sanctuary” issue, while pleased to see a short-term solution, cast doubt that continued belt-tightening would be possible.
“I’m proud of all of the departments for doing what they’ve done, but I don’t know what we do in ’18,” Daugherty said.
Gatlin acknowledged it will be difficult and said his office is working on a permanent solution, under the assumption that it might be at least a few years before grant funding returns, if it ever does.
Gatlin said that’s why his office wanted to wait to make long-term decisions until the budgeting process this summer. By that time, he said, they hope to have a better sense of what limitations the county is facing, be it from “sanctuary”-related cuts or potentially from revenue caps being proposed by state lawmakers.
“In a way, the plan is to keep doing what we’re already doing, which is analyzing every one of our court programs to assure we’re getting the most effective and efficient end result for dollars spent,” Eckhardt said in an interview after the meeting. “When a revenue source goes away ... you have to decide whether to continue the program . ... This was just an expedited, very expedited process, but the process remains the same.”
By reorganizing and finding places where efforts were duplicated, Budget Director Travis Gatlin said his office cut the annual cost of the programs from about $1.5 million to about $1.1 million.