The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has run into some unexpected funding for its federal prisoner housing — $542,080, appropriated from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The money was added to the county’s fiscal year 2015 general fund budget on Aug. 4 by the Board of County Commissioners.
Thanks to an amended service agreement with the USMS, which was made on Feb. 26 of this year, the PCSO now receives $88 per day, per federal prisoner housed. That’s an increase of $8 per day, per head, resulting in the half million increase to the county’s general fund.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, in a March 12 letter to the BCC’s chairman, John Marroni, requested the funds be forwarded to the Sheriff’s Fiscal Affairs Office, for operating costs.
The unanticipated funds were not included in Pinellas County’s original fiscal year 2015 adopted budget, nor were they considered when drawing up 2016’s proposed fiscal year budget.
The 2015 fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
