BENTONVILLE — Sheriff Kelley Cradduck said Monday revenue his department will receive for holding state inmates in the county jail should more than cover a budget shortfall identified last week by the county’s justices of the peace who asked Cradduck and County Judge Bob Clinard to cut their budgets by $200,000 each.

Cradduck said he plans to show the justices of the peace that the county can easily increase the amount now budgeted in revenue for holding state inmates in the jail.

“I am going to give them a solution to this $400,000 problem,” Cradduck said. “I really can’t cut my budget anywhere else. The projected revenue for holding Department of Correction inmates is going to be over $400,000 more than we have budgeted for next year.”

Cradduck said the number of state prisoners being held in the jail has jumped from 40 in July to 222 as of Monday as the state has encountered problems in its parole system. He said that increase is being felt in all 75 Arkansas counties and isn’t going to end soon.

“It’s a trend, in law enforcement we call that a clue, and nowhere in sight is that trend starting to go down,” Cradduck said.

The Quorum Court’s Finance Committee is working on the county 2014 budget. The justices of the peace asked Cradduck and Clinard to make cuts to their budgets last month. At that time, the justices of the peace recommended approval of a range of capital equipment requests, raises for employees and county elected officials and other budget items that left the county facing a shortfall of about $505,000, according to Sarah Daniels, county comptroller.

Daniels said Monday she was aware of the sheriff’s revenue projections. She said the revenue projections for inmate fees were adjusted for 2013. Officials originally budgeted for $750,000 in inmate fees and increased that projection by $100,000 in June, $50,000 in September and another $50,000 in October. For 2014, Daniels said the county has tentatively budgeted for $1.1 million in revenue from inmate fees.

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, said he’s hesitant to balance the budget based on increasing revenue projections.

“My counterproposal to the sheriff would be that he make the cuts, and if his projections pan out by mid-year, we’ll put them back,” Moore said. “If it comes in, we’ll give it back, but I can’t take it basically his word for it. Even though he’s probably right.”

Clinard said if he has to make budget cuts he can, but county services will suffer.

“I don’t have $200,000 to take out of my budget,” he said. “If I take $200,000 out of the Road Department we’re going to have to cut services. We’ll have to take out a road grader or some other equipment we need. Can we get by without it? Yes, but we rely on our equipment every day and if we don’t have it, we’re not going to be able to provide the level of service we need.”

Clinard said he still thinks the county can and should pay for some capital items from its reserve. The county is required by state law to maintain a 10 percent reserve for use in designated emergencies. Daniels said, as of Oct. 31, the county had $2,563,089 in that restricted reserve. The county has an additional $13,011,259 in unrestricted reserves, Daniels said.

“Capital expenditures need to come out of reserves, that what it’s there for,” Clinard said. “It’s sitting there, doing nothing. We can always look at it again next year. It’s not like we’re all in, we’re not spending it all.”

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee, said he will need to be shown that the jail revenues can be counted on.

“I think we should certainly listen, but I’m going to be cautious,” Allen said. “I don’t know what the state has budgeted to reimburse the counties. If they haven’t budgeted enough, there’s going to be delays on our getting anything. I need to see what they’re basing that number on.”

Allen said the county’s revenue from jail fees has fluctuated in the past, making him even more cautious. Daniels said the county received $2,059,188 in 2011 and that dropped to $883,328 in 2012.

“We had to adjust it downward just two years ago,” Allen said. “It’s better to budget your expenditures a little less than what you think your revenues are going to be.”