During a standing-room-only meeting Monday morning of the Comanche County Board of Commissioners, elected county officials were advised to revisit their calculators because of an $808,000 deficit in the proposed county budget for Fiscal Year 2026-27.
The proposed budget is $12.5 million, slightly higher than the $12,000,500 budget for FY 2025-26, which ended June 30.
The budget projection was set by Certified Public Accountant Chris Angel with Budgeting & Accounting Services. “He reviews the county assessor’s report to the Excise Board, the tax rolls and the treasurer’s financial information prior to providing the projection,” County Clerk Carrie Tubbs said.
A huge strain on the county budget is out-of-county housing for jail inmates. David Weber, administrator of the Comanche County Detention Center, estimated his budget at $2.5 million, which includes the inmate housing costs plus the expenses for transporting them to Grady, Greer, and Washita counties. That bill has been paid from the county use tax, but it is in decline.
“We’ve reduced” the CCDC budget for out-of-county inmate housing “from $2.7 million to $2.2 million, but we’re still at a negative cash burn rate,” Commissioner Ryan John said.
As an illustration, the CCDC inmate head count Friday was 196, but the end-of-week count was 303 inmates, Weber reported. By Monday morning the head count was 326, of whom 219 inmates were incarcerated in the CCDC but 107 others were ‘farmed out’ to Greer, Grady and Washita counties.
The proverbial ‘bottom line’ is, “We still need another $808,000 to balance – and that’s with most departments losing two people, which is devastating,” Tubbs said. Moreover, “We’re already two months into this fiscal year,” she noted.
“We cannot cut back on services,” Tubbs said. “The public – the taxpayers – expect us to provide those services, no matter what.” If one or two county employees were to lose their jobs, remaining employees would be expected to pick up the slack.
“And what do you suppose that would do for morale?” Commissioner Josh Powers quipped.
Not every county office could function with the loss of two employees. The County Election Board, for example, has only three employees. The Secretary and the Assistant Secretary are statutory posts, and the office has one full-time clerk. “I can’t afford to lose even one employee,” Secretary Amy Sims told The Ledger.
Insurance premiums have increased, Powers said. More than $235,700 is earmarked for workers’ compensation, and property liability for the county will be a little over $590,500, ledgers reflect.
That does not include insurance premiums for the Comanche County Facilities Authority, which manages the CCDC. The Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma – Self Insurance Group insures the Facilities Authority – but not inside the CCDC, which has no coverage for anything that occurs inside the jail walls. The CCDC’s ACCO premiums are paid from declining county use tax receipts.
“What kind of [budget reduction] numbers are we looking at?” Powers asked. 10%? 20%? “Let the elected officials make those decisions whether to reduce staff,” he said. “That’s not the commission’s decision.”
“It is your responsibility to present a balanced budget to the Excise Board,” Tubbs replied.
“A hiring freeze could help,” Powers said. “That, too, is up to the elected officials.”
He also mentioned voluntary attrition: “Are there any pending retirements in FY27?”
County officers “don’t have to report that to us,” Tubbs said. Having that knowledge now would help with preparation of the budget, Powers indicated.
One possibility that was not discussed Monday was unpaid furloughs, which result in a short-term loss of wages but are less severe than a permanent layoff.
The county still has $1.7 million in principal sitting idle, funds that remain from a Home Finance program that expired years ago. The county could spend the $72,000 in interest earnings those funds have generated, but the principal cannot be used for any purpose except housing assistance.
The county has $204,000 in county sales tax revenue reserved exclusively for capital improvements.
The county also has an estimated $2.3 million in contingency funds. However, that money cannot be used for recurring expenses, such as salaries, and will not be available for expenditure until after the budget is approved, Tubbs explained.
Comanche County officials have prepared three proposed budgets this year.
Central District Commissioner Johnny Owens prepared Version 1 of the county budget. It started with last year’s numbers, minus extras, and a decrease of MASA (Medical Air Services Association) funding to $30,000.
Version 2 was last year’s numbers, minus extras, loss of one employee from each department, no safety awards, and the MASA decrease.
Version 3 was last year’s numbers, minus extras, no safety awards, the MASA decrease, and a loss of two employees.
“I’ve been here 26 years, and until this year we’ve never had Versions 2 and 3 of the budget,” Tubbs said.
Sheriff Michael Merritt submitted an original FY27 budget request for $3.294 million, a 13.75% increase from FY26. All three subsequent versions of the sheriff ’s budget were $2.896 million, the same amount he received last year. Almost every other county agency’s proposed budget in Version 3 was lower than the amount they received last year.
“We do not like the possibility of letting anybody go,” Owens said.