CLAREMONT — The Sullivan County delegation of state representatives adopted a $44 million county budget last week after approving three amendments.
The passage included a vote that reduced the budget of the TRAILS program run by the Department of Corrections by $500,000, with the intention of phasing out the program this year.
TRAILS, which stands for Transitional Re-entry and Inmate Life Skills, now has a $250,000 budget following the 7-5 vote for the cut that was largely along party line.
The final budget approval was 9-3.
The budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 represents a 4.6%, or $1.93 million, increase from last year.
That is down from the 6% recommended by commissioners in their $44.68 million budget proposal.
County Manager Derek Ferland said earlier most of the increase for this year is in debt service, which is up almost $400,000 with a new $5 million bond to complete the renovations and additions in the county nursing home, and salary and health insurance increases.
There is a cost-of-living increase for county employees of 3.1% and health insurance is projected to increase 7.7%.
The delegation also restored $49,500, in a 7-5 vote, to the county grants line item, bringing it to $109,500, which was recommended in the county commissioners’ budget.
The Executive Finance Committee of the delegation reduced the county grants last month in a 3-2 vote. The grants help fund several nonprofit social service agencies in the county including the Claremont Soup Kitchen, Southwest Community Services, the Fall Mountain Food Shelf, Got Lunch in Newport and the Warm Welcome Shelter at the Trinity Church in Claremont.
The final amendment that was passed restored $25,000 to the nonprofit, the Discover Sugar River Region, which had been cut by the EFC in a 3-2 vote.
TRAILS is described as a “90-day intensive substance use recovery and life-skills curriculum for incarcerated individuals.” It is run at the county jail and upon successful completion, inmates can transfer to the Sullivan House in Claremont to begin a process for reintegration into the community.
Republican State Rep. Dale Girard, who is also the Claremont mayor, proposed the $500,000 cut to TRAILS.
“I just feel as though the program, the way it is currently designed, I am not sure we’re getting a great production out of the TRAILS program,” Girad said at the delegation convention Thursday at the Sugar River Technical Center. “This would give an opportunity to sunset the program.”
He said four months (of funding) should be sufficient time to end the program and consider other options, including drug court, which he said can receive some funding through the state.
State Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Grantham, a member of the EFC, said the committee discussed TRAILS but eliminating it never came up and they never voted on it. He said they agreed to do a “deeper dive” into TRAILS and study a possible drug court, which is similar to TRAILS but does not include incarceration, to determine which fits the county’s needs better
“I can’t support an abrupt elimination of this nature. It needs to be taken more slowly,” Sullivan said.
During the discussion, Corrections Superintendent Shawn Coughlin said TRAILS has a bed capacity for 16 males and eight females at the community corrections center in Unity but on average there have been between five and seven inmates cycling through the program every three months.
Nearly all of the $700,000 budget covers the salary and benefits of a program director, two clinicians and a case manager, with the clinicians and case manager still needed to deal with mental health issues of the inmate population if TRAILS is eliminated, Coughlin said.
Hope Damon (D-Croydon) said without a program such as TRAILS, there will be higher costs further down the road.
“We will be paying in other ways through law enforcement and medical crises,” Damon said. “We will be paying in sadder ways.”
Girard, EFC member Wayne Hemingway (R-Claremont), George Grant (R-Sunapee), Judy Aron (R-Acworth), Skip Rollins (R-Newport), Margaret Drye (R-Plainfield) and Delegation Chairman Steve Smith (R-Charlestown) supported the cut to TRAILS.
Sullivan, Damon, William Palmer (D-Cornish), John Cloutier (D-Claremont), and Michael Aron (R-Acworth) were opposed.
Restoration of $49,500 to the county grants line item was proposed as an amendment by Sullivan.
Sullivan said when the grants were cut in half a year ago and further reduced by the EFC, it became clear to him there was a move to eliminate the grant program.
“That wasn’t OK with me. I believe these grants do a lot of good in the county,” said Sullivan, who was joined by Damon, Judy Aron, Michael Aron, Palmer, Cloutier and Drye in support of adding back $49,500 to the county grants line item.
The increase returned grants to the commissioners’ recommendation of $109,500, which is still les than the $127,000 in last year’s budget for county grants.
“I want to maintain what the commissioners recommended and not move toward elimination,” Sullivan said.
Grant argued cutting county funding will not “devastate” these organizations, which he noted receive donations from other sources, including the private sector. He said last year the delegation agreed to start cutting back on the county grants and should continue on that path.
Palmer objected to the idea that the private sector can pick up the cuts by the county.
“There are not enough people to keep these things afloat,” Palmer said.
Restoring $25,000 to Discover Sugar River Region, a nonprofit focused on promoting the area to tourists, passed 10-1. Rollins voted not and Judy Aron recused herself as she sits on the DSRR board.
Democrats Damon, Palmer and Sullivan opposed the final budget.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
