Scott County, Indiana considers funding sheriff or road department with $1M American Rescue funds

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Scott County, Indiana has about a $1 million of American Rescue Plan money that needs to be spent by the end of the year.

Although the needs are plenty across the county, officials have two pressing needs to consider — to further fund the sheriff department or buy equipment for the road department.

Wednesday, the Scott County Council and Commissioners packed into a small conference room for a discussion that was supposed to be about road department equipment used to improve county roads.

“We can sell this chip seal all day long,” said Commissioner Greg Prince.

It didn't take long before the discussion changed course during Wednesday's meeting. Any talk of money within Scott County government circles leads to disagreements.

On Monday, WDRB told you the Scott County sheriff is accused of overspending his budget. Sheriff Jerry Goodin told me the budget issues are nothing more than political gamesmanship.

“There is no one, I can tell you right now, there is no one in Scott County right now that will tell you this is not political,” said Goodin.

Scott County taxpayers have been through a lot this year. In the spring, WDRB reported about the $5 million overspent by the school district. The school budget and sheriff's budget are not related.

“It is not fair to anybody to take this precise resource and pay for a short fall that none of us caused,” Scott County Council President JR Ward said at Wednesday's meeting.

The road department and county commissioners would like to buy a new piece of equipment to get the county roads whipped into shape using some of the excess American Rescue money. County officials would also like to use some of the ARP money to buy a building to accommodate county offices.

No plans for the money were decided on Wednesday, except to have another meeting on Nov. 12 with the sheriff to explain his budget.

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