Jones County Sheriff and the Board of Supervisors can not agree on a budget

LAUREL, MISS. - For over a decade, the Jones County Sheriff’s Department and the county’s Board of Supervisors have sat on opposite sides of the table when it comes to funding the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Alex Hodge has become very vocal about the situation saying the department needs more money.

“The president engaged me about the budget process again, and it’s not going to be resolved in the room,” Hodge said. “For eleven years, we tried to communicate. We tried to talk to no avail we are on totally two different sides of the spectrum.”

However, the board did applaud the sheriff on the job he’s done in the county, but said they do not have any more money they could give him. “They are trying to work with him,” Chief Communication Officer for the Jones County Board of Supervisors said. “They’ve asked questions, what can we do? Let’s look at this. I think they sat down and had a meeting with the Chief Financial Officer, but the resources are not there to give him the budget he is wanting.” The sheriff’s current budget runs off of $5.5 million, which is more than $1 million less than the $7.3 the sheriff requested.