Funding of Constitutional Officers - Virginia Joint Legislative Audit ...

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Exhibit 3, a "yes" has been placed under the State requirement criterion for the two law enforcement service categories. The sheriffis also responsible for enforcement of local ordinances, so a "yes" has also been placed under the normal local government operations criterion. Consequently, the cost responsibility for law enforcement should be shared between the State and local governments. Two service categories have been identified as court services. All sheriffs are responsible for providing security for sessions of court and for the service of civil process. These services are mandated by State law, so a "yes" has been placed under the State requirement criterion. Because the State court system is not considered a part of normal local government operations, a "no" is assigned to the second criterion. As a result, the State should be solely responsible for court security and process service costs of the sheriffs' offices. For the jail operations area, three service categories were identified. Local jails house both State and local custody inmates. Therefore, a "yes" has been assigned ------------ Exhibit3------------ Cost Responsibility for Sheriff and Regional Jail Services State Normal Cost Requirement Local Responsibility Service Category or ReQ.uest Operation Assiwment Law Enforcement • Law Enforcement Yes Yes Shared 6\ Dispatching Yes Yes Shared Court Services • Court Security Yes No State • Process Service Yes No State Jail Operations .. Jail Security Yes Yes Shared • Jail Food Preparation Yes Yes Shared • Jail Medical and Treatment Yes Yes Shared Office Administration • Office Administration Yes Yes Shared Source: JLARC staffanalysis. 22
to both of the cost responsibility criteria. The costs for these services, then, should be shared by the State and local governments. Finally, because office administration services support both State and local functions in the sheriffs' offices, a "yes" has been assigned to both criteria for that service. Office administration costs should be shared by the State and local governments. Assignments fOr Other Constitutional Offices. The two criteria for assigning cost responsibility have been applied in the same way for all ofthe services provided by the other constitutional officers. Appendix C ofthis report shows the cost responsibility assignments for each ofthe services provided by the offices. ESTABLISHING PORTIONS OF SHARED COSTS For those services for which the costs are to be shared by the State and the localities, it is necessary to determine how the costs will be divided between them. Establishing the portions ofState and local costs involves two steps in the framework developed for this study. The first step is to determine the relative benefits which the State and localities derive from the services. The second step is to measure the extent to which each locality has the ability to pay for its share of the costs. Relatiye Benefits of Services The State and local benefits from constitutional officer services can be used to help establish the responsibility that each has for the costs. The proportions of State and local responsibility need not be set arbitrarily at 50 percent each, or at any other arbitrary level. For some service categories, relative benefits can be objectively measured, and the resulting proportions of State and local benefits can be used to establish the shares ofcost responsibility. For example, the costs ofjail operations can be shared by the State and local governments on the basis of the relative number of State custody and local custody inmates in eachjail. IfState custody is defined in terms ofa one-year sentence length, as is the current practice, then the State share ofjail operations costs across all ofthe jails would be 63 percent. IfState custody is defined as a two-year sentence length or more, then the overall State share is reduced to 47 percent ofjail operations costs. Other examples of objective criteria for determining State and local shares include bookkeeping costs and general administration. The costs of bookkeeping by clerks of court can be shared based on the statewide average time reported for State and local functions. And, the costs ofoffice administration for all ofthe local constitutional offices can be shared based on the proportion of staff time, based on the standards, that is calculated for the services assigned to State and local responsibility. 23
Page 3 and 4: REPORT OF THE LEGISLATIVE AUDIT AND
Page 5: Preface State funding for constitut
Page 8 and 9: e local governments' relative abili
Page 10 and 11: the constitutional offispecific eva
Page 12 and 13: current process, some changes in sy
Page 15: Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION 1
Page 18 and 19: ROLES OF THE STATE AND LOCAL GOVERN
Page 20 and 21: missioner of revenue, treasurer, an
Page 22 and 23: STUDY APPROACH JLARC staff develope
Page 24 and 25: differences in the ability of local
Page 26 and 27: cost responsibility for each catego
Page 28 and 29: Exhibit 1 Workload Factors Used in
Page 30 and 31: account for regional differences in
Page 32 and 33: Recommendation (3). The General Ass
Page 34 and 35: Recommendation (5). The General Ass
Page 36 and 37: cost re~;ponsJlbiJjty State should
Page 40 and 41: For some other service categories,
Page 42 and 43: A variety of other revenue sources
Page 44 and 45: ------------- Exhibit5-------------
Page 46 and 47: greater or equal to 1.0 can raise m
Page 48 and 49: are divided evenly between the Stat
Page 50: a COJmnlOIllW€:a!t;h ft..,Uy,,, .
Page 53 and 54: The reimbursement cycle begins when
Page 55 and 56: process occurs prior to the assessm
Page 57: Appendixes ~ Appendix A: Study Mand
Page 60 and 61: AppendixB Mathematical Formulas Use
Page 62 and 63: Appendix B (Continued) Personnel Co
Page 64 and 65: Appendix B (Continued) Revenue Capa
Page 66 and 67: Appendix B (Continued) Personnel Co
Page 68 and 69: Appendix: C Cost ResponsibilityAssi
Page 70 and 71: Appendix C (Continued) COST RESPONS
Page 72 and 73: Appendix C (Continued) COST RESPONS
Page 74: AppendixD Local Revenue Capacity fo
Page 77 and 78: Examples J.i"U.nClLlng 'O.J'U'..u''
Page 79 and 80: State and Support for Sheriffs Offi
Page 82 and 83: ~ ~ State and Local Support for Com
Page 84 and 85: Ou,a~ll;;; and for Local J:l,;xBI.m
Page 86 and 87: State and Local Support for Sheriff
Page 88 and 89:
Local for Court Clerks: Example 2
Page 90 and 91:
•••••••••••
Page 92 and 93:
AppendixF Agency Response As partof
Page 94 and 95:
Introduction The Compensation Board
Page 96 and 97:
- DISAGREES that any stan rd should
Page 98 and 99:
RECOMMENDATION 1. The General Assem
Page 100 and 101:
determining judicial needs. As a re
Page 102 and 103:
In the budget process currently use
Page 104 and 105:
It is a common misconception that t
Page 106 and 107:
The development of state/local perc
Page 108 and 109:
The Compensation Board AGREES with
Page 110 and 111:
AppendixG JLARC StaffComments on th
Page 112 and 113:
officers could maintain monthly rec
Page 114 and 115:
expertise, level of automation, nat
Page 116 and 117:
such as is available in education f
Page 118 and 119:
etween workload indicators and the
Page 120 and 121:
government operations. This is expl
Page 122:
Recent JLARC Reports Organization o
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