This past Monday Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay posted on social media that the sheriff’s department would return to the county $5,435,536 not spent during the fiscal year. Nice chunk of change that Ramsay attributes to his commitment to running a tight fiscal ship.

Ramsay does this about the same time each year. In 2022 the department returned $2,502,538. In 2023 it was $2,705,921. In 2024 it was $4,061,250. The department’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year was about $83 million. In 2026 it’s about $93 million, a 12 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, according to the county’s adopted budget summary.

I don’t begrudge the sheriff’s department those funds. Law enforcement and public safety for 84,000 residents and 4 million visitors are expensive. Ramsay, one of the Keys’ most popular and trusted elected officials, rarely ends up on the wrong side of public opinion. He’s swift to discipline wayward officers — publicly no less — and his social media presence in posts and videos helps maintain a sense of transparency. In a county rife with assorted public-official scandals, Ramsay’s name and department aren’t often among them.

I do, however, quibble a bit about whether it’s good fiscal management that leaves upwards of 6.6 percent of budgeted funds on the table, even if they are returned to the county at the end of the year. I’ve done enough multimillion-dollar budgets to know there are three “rules”: Ask for more than you need; fight for it; and be darn happy when the overseers “only” cut you back to what you actually need.

If the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office budget were under the rapacious corporate bean counters I’ve known, it would be getting a 6.6 percent cut in its funds, not a 12 percent increase. In short, use it or lose it. No excess funds to “give back” at the end of the year. Agencies with excess funds and bad managers can also try to spend them down on stuff easily done without.

The problem with routine unspent budgeted funds is the impact it has on other expenses as the county works through its total budget. While it’s sure nice to get that almost $5.5 million windfall at the end of fiscal year 2025, I think it makes more sense to go for much better matched income to expenses. Less windfall to be returned, but more money up front to stave off cuts to other services, which certainly happened for 2026, when reductions in transportation and non-profit funding (to the tune of a million dollars) eliminated or sharply curtailed services to those in greatest need.

Could we shift the sheriff’s windfall to nonprofits?

Budgeting practices aside for another day, and assuming it’s real cash and not a couple of administrative spreadsheet switches to the bottom line, Monroe County has the opportunity to use part of that $5 million-plus windfall to restore funding in 2026 to the non-profits that provide food, shelter, transportation, medical care and support services to the thousands of working families, children and senior citizens in Key West and the county who won’t make ends meet without it.

Monroe County’s 2026 budget, which began on Oct. 1, is $672.7 million, a $43.6 million reduction from the previous year — a reduction likely driven by the fact the county bought three new Trauma Star helicopters last year to the tune of $52 million. Still that’s a huge spending cut, one that kept taxpayers’ millage rate flat to last year, reduced the aggregate millage rate by 0.6 percent — and ensured an additional $2 million for the emergency disaster fund, which hasn’t increased since 2008. The budget also anticipates significant decreases in federal and state funds, a decline in tourist-driven tax revenue and an overall softening of the Keys economy.

It also funds pay increases for emergency management and law enforcement staff, a new Sugarloaf fire station and improvements to the Stock Island detention center. A big chunk of the spending cuts ($15.6 million) came from efficiency projects, such as combining departments, the elimination of 45 positions and cuts to what the county calls “non-core” services.

I’m sure the temptation is to drop the sheriff’s excess funds to the bottom line or shift them to emergency reserves or other projects. Assuming commissioners have the authority to redirect that windfall, they can do a lot to protect vulnerable residents from the specter of soaring health insurance and reductions in food, shelter, education and transportation assistance.

The non-profits that provide the only safety net many of our residents have are already suffering from federal and state cuts. Restoring a million dollars to them and vital transportation programs — heck, let’s make it $2 million — would go a long way to stabilizing the quality of life on these islands.

Learn more

https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/132/Budget-Finance

https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/DocumentCenter/View/39138/FY2026-Adopted-Budget-Summary