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Above, Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick McDermott, one of the county sheriffs under scrutiny on Beacon Hill, and facing budget strictures.
October 15, 2025
By Chris Lisinski
Legislative leaders issued a rebuke to county sheriffs Tuesday, casting doubt on how the elected law enforcement officers are managing their own spending and teeing up a new campaign-season talking point for the gubernatorial race.
After simmering behind the scenes for weeks, the budgetary feud between lawmakers and county sheriffs erupted into public view Tuesday when House Democrats unveiled a spending bill to close the financial books on the fiscal year that ended June 30 that withholds more than $130 million Healey proposed for sheriffs’ departments. The bill, however, would provide sheriffs’ offices with $14 million for treatment services and $12.5 million for the free communication program.
Instead of funding the full request, which sheriffs say is necessary to cover those two programs as well as salary increases, the legislation that will receive a House vote Wednesday would task the state inspector general with investigating the sheriffs’ books.
It’s a dramatic step at a time of heightened scrutiny for sheriffs, who are elected to manage local correctional systems. Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins faces federal extortion charges, Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick McDermott settled with state campaign finance regulators after unlawfully using taxpayer funds to cover online business courses, and Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi was arrested last month for allegedly driving while intoxicated.
“Over the past few months, serious questions and concerns have been raised about the financial and operational integrity of our sheriffs’ offices across the Commonwealth,” the Legislature’s budget chiefs, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues, said in a joint statement. “As we work to maintain fiscal stability, live within our means, and responsibly close the books on Fiscal Year 2025, it is clear that the Legislature must act to rein in questionable spending practices and restore public confidence in the sheriffs’ operations.”
The $2.25 billion bill that emerged Tuesday covers a slew of spending and policy goals. After accounting for federal reimbursements, the measure would carry a net cost to the state of $750 million, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Like the original closeout budget proposal Gov. Maura Healey filed in August, the House redraft seeks more than $2 billion for MassHealth (with a projected net cost to the state of nearly $540 million), $60.7 million for snow and ice removal expenses, $12 million to cover additional costs of free school meals for all students, and more.
The sheriffs’ budget allocation for fiscal 2025 is roughly $738 million.
The governor did not provide any explanation for the $163 million proposed additional funding injection in her letter to lawmakers, but sheriffs’ departments later told the State House News Service that they faced significant cost growth as a result of salary increases, substance use disorder care, and a mandatory “no-cost calls” program that allows incarcerated individuals to communicate with loved ones free of charge.
But lawmakers now have pointed questions about whether the math adds up. The Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association said it expects the free communication program, for example, to cost all sheriffs a combined $12.4 million in fiscal year 2025.This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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