PARIS — An auditor told Oxford County commissioners Tuesday that the county had about a $700,000 deficit in the jail budget at the end of the 2009 fiscal year due to increases in expenditures and a cash flow issue.

Ron Smith, of RHR Smith and Co., said about $100,000 is a result of expenditures exceeding revenues. The remainder is due to the fact that taxes to be collected from the towns were not due until after the close of the fiscal year on June 30.

Smith previously met with commissioners in July, the same month the Oxford County Jail switched its mission to a 72-hour holding facility. Under the new system, inmates who are unable to make bail within three days are transported to other jails. The change was recommended for Oxford County and three other county jails as a cost-saving measure.

According to Smith’s report, the projected revenues for the jail totaled $1,551,836, with $1,228,757 coming from a capped amount to be raised by taxation and the remainder from intergovernmental revenues and charges for services. The actual amount raised was $1,542,268, a difference of $9,568.

The expenses were also projected to total $1,551,836, but instead came to $1,641,922. Among the increases were personnel costs, which exceeded estimates by $134,600, and capital outlay, which came in over the budget by $11,399. Other areas showed savings, including contract services, which came under budget by $35,329, and commodities, which was under budget by $16,745.

The total deficit between expenses and revenues was $99,654.

Smith said $614,378, half of the revenue to be raised by taxes, was not to be paid until November. He said the county needed to borrow that amount to fund jail operations.

The change in the jail’s mission came after the state Board of Corrections determined that 80 percent of the inmates at the Oxford County Jail were released within three days of their arrest. It was estimated that the jail would be able to operate on an annual budget of $978,742 under the new structure, coming in under the taxed amount by $250,000. This savings would then go to the state to cover increases in other jail budgets.

Smith said the state is requesting $125,000 from the county based on the projection that the jail saved half of that amount in the first six months of operation from July to December. He advised the commissioners to determine the actual savings and discuss the issue with state officials before approving the transfer of funds.

“I’m not saying don’t pay it,” he said. “I’m saying understand what you have before you pay it.”

Sheriff Wayne Gallant also spoke at the meeting, telling commissioners that the jail was coming in under budget in food and transportation budgets. As a 72-hour holding facility, the jail caters food from a local restaurant for meals and takes inmates to district courts. Gallant previously said that travel expenses were increasing due to trips to more distant locations such as the Rumford District Court.

Gallant said the system is still causing frustration in other areas. He said prisoners will no longer be transported in Oxford County Jail clothing after some of the clothing was misplaced at the Androscoggin County Jail, and that the Cumberland County Jail recently informed jail staff attempting to pick up an Oxford County prisoner that they would be unable to do so without a writ of habeas corpus.

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