LAWTON - Comanche County commissioners discussed several options last Tuesday for closing a budget gap, but opted to ‘kick the can down the road’ for a few more days while they weigh the proposals.
The Comanche County Detention Center — the county jail — is a major financial hurdle.
During a standing-roomonly meeting Aug. 24 of the Board of Commissioners, elected county officials were advised to redo their calculators because of an $808,000 deficit in the proposed county budget for Fiscal Year 2026-27.
The 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, previously estimated his inmate housing budget at $2.5 million, which includes the costs of incarcerating Comanche County inmates in jails in other counties, plus the expense of transporting them to Chickasha, Mangum and Cordell.
The jail’s inmate population has exceeded the facility’s maximum allowable limit almost every week for at least 20 years. Until recently, Comanche County could rely on the county use tax to finance its contracts with other counties - including Greer, Washita and Grady, and formerly Tillman and Okmulgee counties — to house dozens of its inmates.
However, that tax revenue is also used to pay for “many other expenditures,” such as legal fees and capital repairs, Tubbs told Southwest Ledger.
Because out-of-county inmate housing costs have climbed, Comanche County officials tapped into the General Fund for $291,000 last year to finance some of the cost of offsite housing of county prisoners.
“The jail will be part of the General Fund budget from here on out, because the use tax is depleting,” Tubbs said. “This is the first year we are feeling the effects.”
“We’ve reduced” the CCDC budget for inmate housing “from $2.7 million to $2.2 million, but we’re still at a negative cash burn rate,” District 1 Commissioner Ryan John said last month.
As an illustration, the CCDC inmate head count Friday was 194, but the end-of-week count last week was 303 inmates, Weber reported. By Tuesday morning the total head count was 343, of whom 234 inmates were incarcerated in the CCDC but 109 others were ‘farmed out’ to Greer, Grady and Washita counties.
Comanche County’s average out-of-county jail inmate head count is 100, costing an average of $50 per day — and that doesn’t include fuel and vehicle repair expenses and personnel to guard those inmates during their transfer to Chickasha or Mangum or Cordell. The county is spending $150,000 to $200,000 per month for offsite inmate incarceration, records reflect.
The proverbial ‘bottom line’ is, “We still need another $808,000 to balance the budget, county officials lamented last month.
Comanche County maintains a cash reserve fund and within that is a contingency fund earmarked for one-time expenditures, not recurring expenses such as out-of-county inmate housing.
Several potential measures for balancing the county budget were tossed about Tuesday.
“We have money we can’t use,” District 3 Commissioner Josh Powers said.
For example, 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.
Powers asked whether a countywide vote of the people could be held on a proposal to “unlock those funds” and them to be spent on something else. “You’ll have to talk to the district attorney about that,” Tubbs said. “Comanche is the only county in Oklahoma that has that account,” she added.
Require employees to pay part of insurance Powers also suggested requiring county employees to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums: perhaps $150 per month.
The City of Lawton has 815 employees who are offered a suite of health care insurance options, Human Resources Director Candy Brown told the Ledger. The city pays 70% to 90% of each employee’s insurance premiums, “depending on the plan chosen.” For basic medical and dental insurance for the employee, not including his/ her family, the employee pays “anywhere from $100 to $150” per month, she said.
Insurance premiums for all 125 full-time Comanche County employees will increase by $118/month in January, Tubbs said. If county employees are required to pay the first $150 of their insurance premiums starting in January, the savings would be $32 per month per employee, or $48,000 for FY2026-27, which ends June 30, 2027.
“And we are entering the open enrollment period” in October, Tubbs reminded the commissioners.
Election Board Secretary Amy Sims said her two employees are not enrolled in the state/county Health Choice insurance program because both are covered by the military’s TRICARE program.
Powers proposed eliminating MASA (Medical Air Services Association) coverage (for medi-flights to, say, Oklahoma City or Wichita Falls). Corrine Owensby, a District 2 county employee, said that benefit costs $14/month per household. “It probably will be December 31 before that contract expires,” Tubbs said.
“Benefits are the second largest expense in our budget,” said Powers.
Powers also suggested that Weber consider confining more inmates in the CCDC and ‘farming out’ fewer inmates to other counties. However, state law and state Fire Marshal regulations limit maximum incarceration in the CCDC to 240 inmates.
Tax exemption costing millions
Another issue that affects Comanche County’s budget is the 100% property tax exemption for military veterans who are deemed to be totally disabled. The county has 5,521 such veterans whose tax exemptions cost the county $13.53 million — the most per capita in the state, according to J.P. Richard, chairman of the County Equalization Board and Excise Board.
“I contend we ought to sue the State of Oklahoma,” Richard told the Ledger. The state Tax Commission “reimburses ad valorem exemptions for wind farms and for industrial development, but not for totally disabled veterans.”
The Comanche County Facilities Authority, which manages the county jail, “is a public trust and can borrow money for repairs,” Powers noted. “If we’re low on cash, we need to look at other options.”
Yet another proposal is to cut at least one employee from every county office. However, “If you cut the staff, you’ll still have the same workload,” Powers said.
In addition, Powers asked how many county employees are expected to retire by the end of this fiscal year or sometime next fiscal year. County elected officials have not been required to provide that information, Tubbs said.
Nevertheless, Brent Easton, Comanche County assessor-elect, informed the Ledger that that office will lose four of its five staff members to retirement this year.
The three commissioners voted unanimously to table a decision on the county budget for one more week.
“Nobody working on this budget wants to let anybody go,” Central District Commissioner Johnny Owens said. “But we’ve got a problem and we need to solve it.”
“The county budget has to be balanced by you,” Tubbs told Owens. Historically, Comanche County’s central district commissioner has shouldered that responsibility, she noted.