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Clay County Sheriff Bob Boydston is concerned that an extension to the current one-eighth cent law enforcement tax could fail if presented to voters this November.

The reason is the reduction in spending authority for his office, including with capital projects and facilities maintenance.

“It just doesn’t make sense when the sheriff, whether it’s me or someone in this office in the future, is in charge of the jail operations (and has limited control over expenditures),” he said.

Clay County Presiding Commissioner Ed Quick said Boydston is not being singled out.

“The sheriff is being treated the same as every other officeholder,” he said.

Quick also stressed that failure to pass the tax, which generates more than $3 million a year in revenue, would lead to sharp cutbacks in law enforcement operations.

“The citizens in the end will pay the price,” he said.

On that point Boydston agrees, citing the potential for a serious impact.

That’s why he said the issue, which expires July 1, 2010, should have been presented to voters long before now.

“We have two commissioners who’ve had two years to be working on this,” he said.

Quick said if Boydston is so concerned about the issue he should have been at the last two commission meetings where the ballot language was discussed.

Quick expects the ballot language to be very similar to the original issue with only minor revisions as the county is seeking an extension of the sales tax, not a new sales tax.

Clay County Administrator Alexa Barton expects the commission to move forward with the issue, despite Boydston’s reservations.

“The commission will do what’s best for the county and I believe citizens realize the importance of continuing the tax,” she said.

Commissioners took control of capital spending from individual office holders in January to deal with the tight budgetary conditions.

At the time, the commission also took more control over facilities maintenance expenditures, in another move to avoid layoffs.

Barton said there were only two facilities maintenance budgets at the time, and one was for the sheriff’s department.

Boydston has asked for restoration of his previous spending authority.

Quick had said it’s reasonable for the commission to have control of the accounts it does considering law enforcement operations will be subsidized by around $1 million from the general fund this year, an amount higher than anticipated because of lagging sales tax revenue.

Senior writer Mark Johnson can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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