Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis will have to absorb a $2.5 million dollar cut in his $22 million dollar annual budget. he cut was ordered Tuesday morning by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors.
The money will be used, in part, to finance a $100 a month across the board raise for all Hinds County employees. $500,000 of the money will go to the county's Public Works Department for repaving roads.
The motion to make the cut was made by Supervisor Kenneth Stokes, who was supported by Supervisors Phil Fisher and Doug Anderson.
"This is a long needed cut. We have to take some effective steps to get the budget back in order in the county. And we had to take the opportunity to do that," said Fisher.
Supervisors Peggy Hobson Calhoun and Robert Graham voted against cutting the sheriff.
"You don't need to cut your public safety when you need to provide more safety for our citizens," said Hobson Calhoun.
Sheriff Tyrone Lewis would not say if the cut will mean he will have to lay people off.
"It's gonna hurt in the jail, in corrections, it's gonna hurt in patrolling and in patrolling businesses, in the streets of Hinds County, so we have to make big cuts, the losers in this is the taxpayers, the losers are the people of Hinds County when it comes to their protection and safety."
Fisher said later Lewis had 69 slots in his department that were unfilled, and with the cuts he will still have 372 people working for him.
Board president Robert Graham is in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Democratic National Convention. He says he has called a board meeting for Monday where he hopes to reverse the board's decision to cut the sheriff's budget.
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