AUBURN – Androscoggin County leaders unveiled nearly $600,000 in cuts to the coming two-year jail budget, stopping just shy of eliminating jobs.

“We have a budget that keeps the lights on and the doors open,” Sheriff Guy Desjardins said Wednesday. “That’s all.”

Cuts included previously planned spending on inmate bunks and fire-resistant totes, demanded by state corrections officials after a June inspection. Officials also jettisoned a fix of the building’s roof.

“I think at this point it’s in the state’s hands,” Desjardins said.

The budget is a first for the Auburn jail, which is now part of a network of county jails established by the Maine Legislature last May.

In each of Maine’s 15 counties, commissioners must approve a biennial budget that will be weighed by the newly created Board of Corrections.

Though the budget is due in Augusta on Thursday, county leaders were still tabulating final numbers late Wednesday.

Part of the challenge came from Gov. John Baldacci, who asked every state department last week to make cuts. In September, he asked department heads to come up with a plan for 10 percent cuts.

In Androscoggin County, the cuts come from a working budget that would still boost jail spending.

This year, the jail budget stood at $4.28 million.

Though the numbers were still uncertain Wednesday night, a 5 percent increase seemed likely, Desjardins said.

Much of that is unavoidable, Commissioner Helen Poulin said Wednesday. Spending on fuel and health care inside the jail are outside of the county’s control.

“There is nothing we can do about them,” she said.

Desjardins tried cutting anything that would not jeopardize the safety and security of either the guards or inmates of the jail, he said.

Among his other proposed cuts was a plan to get inmates to paint the interior of the jail and even make them pay for the materials through their inmate benefit account. It’s the same program used to make renovations to local schools and other public buildings.

The alternative to the cuts would be the loss of staff, Desjardins said.

Already, the number of guards is at a minimum during any given shift inside the downtown facility, he said.

“I’ve got eight people potentially watching 162 inmates,” Desjardins said. “If you let people go, you’d have to reduce the number of inmates.”