President's Message
- Volume 52, Number 1 - 2008
Comparing Alabama's counties...then and now.
Every couple of years we try to take a snap shot of county government in what is called the Comparative Data on Alabama Counties. The information is useful for each county in evaluating its activities in relation to its peers, and it provides a good measure of how county government is changing in our state.
This year’s publication isn’t an old-fashioned “paper” version, but is in digital form and can be downloaded from the Association’s Web site from the “Publications” section. If you’re still on one of those dial-up connections, you might want to pack a lunch when you start the downloading process; the file is large with a capital L.
The survey instrument for this year’s publication was distributed in the summer of 2007. We must thank our friends at Auburn University Montgomery for their help in analyzing the data and making contacts back at the county level to ensure that we received responses from as many counties as possible.
The numbers found in the publication don’t really tell the complete story by themselves. Once you dig through the drawer and find a copy of a couple of the older publications, many dramatic changes come into focus. Counties are less involved in health care and solid waste than a few years back, but are dedicating more and more of their resources to law enforcement and the operation of the jail.
If that old adage about putting your money where your mouth is can be trusted, then one might be able to make some guesses about what county government will be like in a few more years.
First, at the rate counties are increasing their expenditures on law enforcement, very soon there may be little money left for anything else. Consider these numbers:
In 1997, some 22 counties budgeted at least $1 million for the operation of the sheriffs’ department, and just four counties – Jefferson, Madison, Mobile and Montgomery – budgeted more than $5 million for the operation of those offices.
By 2007, 37 counties reported sheriffs’ budgets of more than $1 million per year, which is an increase of more than 68 percent. In addition, the number of counties expending more than $5 million per year on the sheriffs’ department doubled to eight, with Baldwin, Lee, Shelby and Tuscaloosa joining the state’s four largest counties.
The size of the county budgets does not seem to have kept pace with this increased spending on law enforcement. A total of 15 counties had general fund budgets of $10 million or more back in 1991, and more than 15 years later in 2007, only 15 counties had general fund budgets of more than $10 million. It is easy to see that the percentage of revenue being spent on law enforcement has increased at a much faster rate than the revenue being received by the counties.
In 1997, just 10 counties budgeted $50,000 or more for the payment of overtime for sheriffs’ deputies. By 2007, that number had more than doubled to 24 counties with sheriffs’ department overtime budgets of $50,000 or more. The number of counties with more than 20 deputies increased by 50 percent from 1991 to 2007.
Second, we will be cutting ribbons on a lot of new jails around the state in the coming years – if the last few years are any indication.
In the 1991 version of Comparative Data on Alabama Counties, only 13 counties reported employing more than 20 persons in the operation of their jails. By 2007, this number had almost tripled to 37 counties with more than 20 jail employees!
A few other numbers regarding the county jail also brings things into focus.
In 1991, only 11 counties reported a jail design capacity of more than 100 inmates. By 2007, that number had quadrupled to 43! Of course, the only way to make this kind of dramatic increase in the design capacity of the jails is to build new jails.
The numbers confirm this assumption: Only 11 counties said their jail was less than 10 years old back in 1991, but by 2007 a total of 26 counties responded that their jail was less than 10 years old. We’ve certainly kept the construction industry busy.
Third, as counties become less and less involved in the collection and disposal of solid waste, the shift seems to be hitting taxpayers right in the pocketbook.
The number of counties operating their own landfills shrank from 41 in 1991 to only 11 in 2007. And, not surprisingly, residents have seen a dramatic increase in the solid waste collection rates since 1991 when the residential solid waste collection and disposal fee was less than $10 per month in 42 of Alabama’s counties. By 2007, only one – Morgan with a residential fee of $9.50 per month — reported a residential fee of less than $10 per month.
Fourth, there has been such a major shift away from county involvement in the delivery of health care services that within just a few years counties may be out of this “service” altogether.
In 1991, 17 counties operated county hospitals and five counties operated nursing homes. In the 2007 survey only 11 counties reported that they participate in the operation of hospitals and only one county has its own nursing home.
There are other observations to be made as well, but I encourage you to download the publication and draw your own conclusions.
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