AUBURN — Androscoggin County and state leaders on Wednesday approved a $5.5 million jail budget that might be spent before the fiscal year is up.

“We’re going to have to squeak by,” Sheriff Guy Desjardins told county commissioners. “During the last two weeks of June 2012, we’re probably going to run a little short.”

The reason is a bare-bones budget that cut $10,000 from the county jail for the coming fiscal year, beginning July 1. The cut came despite rising labor and health costs and acute needs such as new laundry machines and an increasingly dirty air-circulation system.

New washers and dryers and cleaner ducts will have to wait, Desjardins said. The alternative would be to lay off staff. This budget cuts everything except jobs.

“If they cut any more, I’d have no choice,” he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, members of the state Board of Corrections which oversees Maine’s 15 county jails, voted to unanimously approve the county’s $5.5 million spending package as part of a statewide $79.5 million jail-system budget.

Though the majority of the jail spending comes from local property taxes — $4.2 million in Androscoggin County — each jail in Maine is linked to a common system.

Desjardins warned the state board that the approved budget would be extraordinarily tight.

“If everything stays on schedule, we’re going to be about $120,000 short,” he told the seven-member group in Augusta. If some staffers leave, he may save some money by delaying their replacement. He might also save money if the county resolves its outstanding union contract.

However, if there is a costly emergency, the budget would not be able to absorb it, he said. The sheriff would be forced to lean on the state for help.

“The last thing I want to do is come back here and ask for more money,” he said.

He gave the same message to the three-member County Commission, which voted 2-1 to approve the bottom-line number.

Chairman Randall Greenwood and Commissioner Elaine Makas approved the measure, but Jonathan LaBonte, who voted against approval, said he had not seen the detailed budget and led a line-by-line analysis.

For more than an hour, Desjardins and Jail Administrator John Lebel answered questions ranging from lighting and legal costs to health care and heating. The sheriff and Lebel repeated worries about aging machines and computers.

“We’re going to be putting a Band-Aid on them and hope they last the year,” Desjardins said.

County commissioners plan to continue looking at the budget in a workshop scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 22.

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