It’s been a rough year for our state’s freewheeling sheriffs. Consider some recent headlines:
- Norfolk County Sheriff spent campaign cash on personal business ventures, state officials say
- Suffolk County Sheriff indicted for allegedly extorting Boston cannabis company
- Hampden County Sheriff arrested for OUI at MGM Springfield
Now there’s more bad news for the county sheriffs.
Both the house and the senate are taking steps to rein in the sheriff departments’ prodigious budgets.
Late last week Chairmen of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees issued a joint statement.
According to the statement,
Over the past few months, serious questions and concerns have been raised about the financial and operational integrity of our sheriffs’ offices across the Commonwealth. It is clear that the Legislature must act to rein in questionable spending practices and restore public confidence in the sheriffs’ operations.
Consistent with this statement, the house halted $162 million in “budget overages” requested by the state’s sheriffs, while directing the inspector general to investigate the sheriffs’ finances.
The inspector general is to conduct “a detailed accounting of expenditures made by the sheriffs’ offices” and “a review of spending by sheriffs’ offices on activates not specifically required by statute, case law or court order and how such spending has changed over time.”
At the same time, the senate is forming an oversight panel to monitor sheriff department spending. Sheriff departments that fail to properly manage funds could be subjected to financial control by a state-appointed receiver.
Sheriff departments’ spending has increased 22% in the past year. That’s an additional $46 million distributed among the states 14 sheriffs.
Nevertheless, sheriffs continue to clamor for more cash.
This year Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi–currently on probation for drunk driving–is asking for an additional $33.4 million. Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins (under federal indictment for extortion) is seeking an extra $28.4 million. And Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald, Jr. wants an additional $21.6 million.