Taxpayers at the county level are paying a lot of bills that the state should be paying. The state pays counties $20 per day to hold people charged with or convicted of state crimes. Governor Matt Blunt has proposed increasing that amount by a dollar. County officials are hardly turning handsprings. The State Association of Counties figures it costs $37.50 for each state inmate, each day, in a county jail. Executive Director Dick Burke says the state also does not meet its obligation in other categories. The result? He says county services suffer because counties have to spend so much of their own money on state responsibliities. Burke says the state has put a number of unfunded mandates on counties – something that’s illegal under the State Constitution. He says the tight state budget makes it doubtful the state will meet more of its responsibilities. But he says counties have to make sure the issue does not go away.
