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

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.
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