Corrections budget gets tentative OK

DES MOINES – State corrections officials began formulating budget plans Friday using a pencil with a big eraser.

The state Board of Corrections gave tentative approval to a $356.6 million “status quo” budget request for fiscal 2011 with the understanding that the status quo could move downward when a state panel meets Oct. 7 to revise revenue estimates.

“It's all hinged on guess work right now,” said John Baldwin, director of the state Department of Corrections. He noted his agency has slowed hiring to correctional officers and nurses and has implemented nearly 20 cost-cutting measures in anticipation of current-year cuts that one budget official warned could reduce spending by 3-5 percent.

“The state of Iowa is facing its most challenging economic crisis in recent memory, and one in which the end is not yet in sight,” according to DOC document presented to board members to highlight recent cost reduction efforts.

Baldwin said the current and upcoming state budgeting cycles are shaping up to likely be a series of downward revisions given the recessionary effects that are driving up unemployment numbers and driving down tax receipt expectations.

Adding to the budget uncertainty is the fact that corrections officials are using about $14 million in one-time federal economic stimulus aid to fund some ongoing operations with uncertain prospects for more federal help in the 2011 fiscal year that begins next July 1.

The seven correction board members approved the tentative fiscal 2011 budget request to comply with an Oct. 1 deadline but they did so with an expectation they will revisit the issue again in November.

The board also unanimously approved a $56.1 million capital appropriations request that included community-based correction expansions in Ames and Burlington totaling 65 beds for $14 million, a $5 million request for re-entry centers in Waterloo and Des Moines, $8.25 million for prison upgrades in Mitchellville and Fort Madison, and nearly $29 million in major maintenance needs.

During Friday's board meetings, project designers provided updates for the 888-bed, $68 million expansion of the women's prison at Mitchellville slated to be completed by December 2012 and the construction of a new $131 million maximum-security prison on a farm near Fort Madison that should open in the spring of 2013.

Also Friday, Dr. Harbans Deol outlined precautions and contingency plans under way to deal with the potential for the H1N1 flu virus to hit the state's corrections system. He said so far two staff members have had confirmed cases that were contracted outside of the system and they did not return to work until their symptoms had passed.