Should Funding the Sheriff's Budget Be a Top Priority for the BOC?

What is the primary duty of Barrow County government? According Jacquelin Twiss, the answer is simple:

"Your first duty is to protect the citizens of Barrow, to fund the sheriff’s budget," Twiss wrote in a blog on Barrow Patch. 


Currently under debate at the county government level is just how big that budget should be.

The Barrow County News reports Sheriff Jud Smith is facing a proposed $777,000 budget reduction in the next fiscal year.

"I don’t think it’s fair, and I think it’s irresponsible," Smith told the BCN.

In a videotaped interview with Jim Cooley, Sheriff Smith said the cuts, if implemented, would "hamstring" his operations.

"Based on the operating budget that I have on the detention side with the contracted items I have and their proposed cuts, I'm going to start the year on Oct. 1 with a negative $68,000 balance," Smith told Cooley (see video).

That situation has prompted Twiss to question whether the BOC is fulfilling its primary reason for being.

"The people and property were around long before the existence of government and its primary function is to provide for their safety," she wrote.

Twiss further questioned if commissioners were behaving in a responsible and accountable manner.

"The BOC is really no different than a cow, horse, whatever, big appetite on one end and no sense of responsibility on the other," she wrote. "You see the citizen’s tax dollars as this never ending green pasture of tall grass, but all we are getting out the other end are piles of manure."

What do you think? Is the BOC acting in a responsible manner regarding the proposed cuts to the Sheriff's budget? Should public safety be the top priority for local government? Let us know in the comments or, if you have a longer opinion or letter to the editor to share, post in our Barrow County community discussion forum.