CBS12 News Team

PBSO budget proposal asks for 1.5 percent increase

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. -- Palm Beach County is facing up to a $10 to $20 million budget shortfall next year. As the county begins grappling with that, one agency is asking for a budget increase.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says it needs $7.5 million more.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says his office needs a budget of $471 million to do its job effectively. The number is more than double the entire budget for Palm Beach County.

BRADSHAW: I asked for what I needed based on the numbers presented to me now, but all the numbers are not in.

Those numbers include the property appraisal figures. The $471 million proposal for fiscal year 2013, which starts October 1, is a 1.5 percent increase. The sheriff says more than $5 million - 70 percent of the increase - is to pay for personnel. Employee compensation by far is the sheriff's office largest expenditure.

BRADSHAW: This is personnel costs, which means if you want me to cut the budget that means I have to take deputies off the road and that's not going to happen.

Bradshaw credits that police presence as a reason crime is down in Palm Beach County, according to a report released this week by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

BRADSHAW: The reason the crime rate is coming back is because you have the resources to make it reduced. If you get rid of those resources you will see a huge spike in crime.

Nevertheless, costs need to be contained. The key challenge facing the sheriff's office is how to do that, while not only maintaining, but improving the way they fight crime.

BRADSHAW: This is a huge county, we are doing over a million calls for service and there are things the sheriff does that the local police departments don't. We run the jails, we protect the court house, we protect the airport, we protect the waterways, we serve warrants, we serve civil process, it goes on, and on and on.

The county's budget will not be finalized for several months. That means these numbers will likely change. The county will meet again June 12 to discuss the budget.

Wednesday, May 2 2012, 08:29 PM EDT

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