I appreciate the invitation to offer a few brief remarks to your 2016 Conference of Counties.  I begin by congratulating President Brenda L. Miller on your excellent remarks.  While issues affecting counties will shift a bit from time-to-time, many remain the same over  time.  Having spent most of my time in public service at the county level, please be assured that I truly understand your issues.

Given the current economic climate in our State, county governments are facing challenges as never before.  Just as declines in severance tax collections have resulted in serious projected shortfalls in our current FY2016 State Budget, we are currently faced with a   projected $354 million deficit in our upcoming FY2017 Budget.   Without question, continued declines in the coal industry, increased coal company bankruptcy filings, historic lows in the price of natural gas in the marketplace, and our lowest workforce participation rate in the nation all threaten the continued financial viability and stability of State governmental services.   As I am certain that you know, the same economic drivers affecting our State budget are having a serious impact on county revenues throughout the State of West Virginia.  In    preparation for your upcoming budget sessions in March, many difficult decisions for our counties lay ahead.  In responding to these      financial challenges, it will be important to have a sober sense that things will likely get worse before they get better and that we must work together to maintain essential governmental services with less and less financial resources to do so.

In the coming weeks, with the preparation of your respective budgets, it will be important for you to properly project your anticipated revenues and adjust your budgeted expenditures in a manner that will enable you to maintain services for your citizens.   Hopefully, with good planning, you may be able to manage any need for the reduction in personnel through attrition rather than layoffs, remain current in your accounts payable, and properly protect the financial integrity of your various offices.  While I recognize and understand that your 2016 Legislative Priorities for your various member associations are inclusive of a number of specific legislative issues which are important to you and are worthy of our attention and action, I would submit to you that all other matters pale in comparison to the overall need to protect your revenue base and properly prepare your county for the economic uncertainty which most certainly lies ahead. When there is an elephant in the room, it is important to recognize it as such. For those of us in government it is important to hunker down and work toward improving the economic climate for our future. In the current and future legislative sessions, it will be increasingly important for you to remain alert and vigilant in protecting county government against unfunded mandates. Additionally, I would caution you to resist and reject any and all shifts from the State to our counties any governmental responsibilities which properly reside with our State government.  Clearly, the maintenance of our public roadways ant the operation of our public health departments are the clear and unambiguous responsibility of the State of West Virginia. Absent the revenue to do so, we must not allow the State to abrogate its responsibilities by hanging additional duties around the necks of our counties.

In responding to many of our current and future challenges affecting the future of our State, I am convinced that our counties must play increasingly active roles in the search for solutions affecting our communities. I am of the strong opinion and belief that our County Commissions must be prepared to play ever increasing role in local and regional economic development initiatives essential to the further diversification and transition of our economy. It will be more and more important for county officials to remain alert to state and federal funding for local projects through a variety of grant funding sources.  In responding to the many challenges which are ours, it will be important for us to activate and involve persons of talent willing to serve on many of the voluntary committees and boards essential to the operation of our county governments. In a period of increased cynicism about the role of government in our lives, we must learn to motivate young people and other untapped human resources who have something to bring to the table.

Finally, as a 4 term county sheriff, I feel some duty and responsibility to offer some commentary on an old issue which continues to threaten the on-going financial viability of our counties.  While the per diem cost for inmates in our regional jails has been somewhat stable in recent years, many counties continue to struggle with regional jails costs and the payment of invoices used to meet the bonds financed for the construction of these state owned facilities. While the establishment of community corrections programs and specialty court was done in hopes of reducing regional jail expenses through the introduction of sentencing and treatment options for non-violent offenders, it would appear that these programs have merely slowed the rate of growth rather than actually reducing jail costs to local units of government.  Having been engaged in this policy debate for at least 20 years, I will leave with you what may well be my final assessment of the matter.  First, with our run-away substance abuse and addiction problems threatening the very fabric of the communities in which we live, the lines between addiction and true criminality have blurred to the point where our local criminal justice system now pays the cost for the lack of the community-based intervention and treatment programs required to deal with this public health crisis.  Until the State of West Virginia establishes effective substance abuse treatment programs in our counties, our workforce participation rates will remain low and or regional jail costs will continue to climb. And finally, in offering my views on what I have always considered to be as the mother of all unfunded mandates, it will remain a mystery to me why we continue to burden our counties with regional jail costs which are entirely attributable to agents of the State of West Virginia.  In the payment for inmates confined in our regional jails, we apportion per diem costs to our municipal governments for those offenders arrested by city officers and committed to jails by authority of our municipal courts. However, cities are able to avoid jail costs simply by processing these same offenders through our State Magistrate Court System. The undue financial burden placed on our counties is even more obvious when offenders are arrested by the WV State Police.   The arrest of a person violating a State law by a State law enforcement officer who processes the offender through a State court for confinement in a State institution while the county pays the bill—something has always been wrong with that picture.

Again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this morning. In preparing to gear down and step away from public service. I will always consider my county government work as my best and most meaningful.  While legislative service is good for those who might like to posture and pontificate, it is in our county courthouses where the real work of the people gets done. Thank you and good luck.