Sheriff Witt pushes fault on $15M budget overage, aims to tighten budget
While the sheriff says she’s seeking ways to tighten the budget, Dawanna Witt says her office being millions over budget isn’t all her fault.
She’s pointing to the entity that approves her budget, the Hennepin County Board — claiming it’s not fully funding her for the staff she’s approved to have, essentially putting her in the hole to start the year.
Last month, board commissioners unanimously approved $15.4 million to cover the sheriff’s office’s 2025 budget shortfall. Sheriff Witt says most of that overage comes from personnel costs after adding a surge of deputies following a push from the board to hire more.
Going back to 2024, Witt faced a staffing shortage in the county jail, prompting the transfer of more than 2,000 inmates to other jails and costing the county millions.