Pueblo judicial building making county dig deeper into its wallet

Pueblo’s new judicial building is costing the county a pretty penny.

The Pueblo County Commissioners met with the sheriff’s office and judicial building employees Thursday.

Commissioner Terry Hart said the county is facing a nearly $7 million deficit for its budget next year with close to $3 million coming from the judicial building.

“The decision was made to build the new building. I don’t think there was any kind of argument that we needed a new judicial building, but there is a cost in doing it,” Hart said.

He said the county is figuring out different ways to balance the budget.

“We’re still in the process of doing cuts where we can still do it. We are also trying to explore the other side of the equation and see what other revenue sources we can bring in to offset the deficit a little bit,” Hart said.

He said the county is trying to fill the deficit by selling county properties, finding help from the state and hiring a grant writer.

Sheriff Kirk Taylor said ballot issue 1A could help by building a new jail next to the judicial building.

“You can if you move the jail right next to the judicial building and you put in a tunnel or you put in a catwalk to the jail that it is less manpower intensive to do that and so you would theoretically save that $900,000 that we increased because of the movement to the judicial,” he said.

Hart said the deficit plus operating the building will be close to $5 million a year.

The county has until Dec. 15 to finalize the budget.