IG: Both sides at fault for ‘chaotic’ sheriffs’ budget process

The budget process for Massachusetts’s 14 county sheriffs “has become opaque, chaotic, and deeply flawed,” according to a preliminary investigation that a House official said shows the need for reforms.

The report released Friday found that many sheriffs overspend their budgets annually, possibly in violation of state finance law — but that fault laid both in appropriations and spending. 

Inspector General Jeff Shapiro wrote that the Legislature routinely underfunds what they know the offices will need, expecting to later fill in gaps with supplemental spending; and that the county offices overspend and do not wait until they have the additional dollars in hand to spend that money, often putting themselves in a deficit and forcing the Legislature’s hand. 

“It is apparent that the role of the sheriffs’ offices may not be as narrow as some legislative leaders expect, nor as expansive as some sheriffs believe. While the creation of the sheriffs’ office date back to the origins of this country, the work of the offices is set by statute. The Legislature has an opportunity to clarify such roles and responsibilities while also reforming a fundamentally broken budget process,” Shapiro wrote in the report, which lands as the Legislature is ramping up its fiscal year 2027 budget process.

Last fiscal year, county sheriffs presented the Legislature with a $162 million end-of-year deficit to make up. 

Lawmakers held off on helping them cover the full amount, and tasked Shapiro with assembling a detailed accounting of sheriffs’ expenditures in fiscal year 2025; an analysis of sheriffs’ offices’ compliance with state finance laws; a review of sheriffs’ spending on activities not specifically required by statute, case law or court order; and an analysis of compensation levels and changes over the preceding three fiscal years.

“With no agreement between the Legislature, [the Executive Office of Administration and Finance], and the sheriffs, ever-increasing supplemental budgets to pay for sheriffs’ deficit spending have become the norm. Furthermore, the sheriffs’ spending has already occurred by the time supplemental funding is requested. Since the bills are already due, it is too late for the Legislature and A&F to assist in reducing spending,” a news release about the investigation explains.

A spokesperson for the House said there is “a clear need for reform.” Senate Ways and Means spokesperson Sean Fitzgerald said “this is an area we have been closely focused on.”

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