BSO requests double-digit increase as under sheriff warns of staffing 'elephant in the room'

The Broward Sheriff's Office on Friday presented a FY27 budget request that county budget staff said would raise generally funded resources by about 12.4% over the FY26 adopted level, part of an agencywide proposed increase of roughly 10.9% when contracts are included.

The presentation by Jennifer of the county budget office showed BSO seeking $937.4 million in generally funded resources and separate contract increases (for cities, airport and Port Everglades) that together push the agencywide request higher. "From the general fund, the generally funded resources there's an increase of 12.4%," she said.

Under Sheriff Steve Robson, speaking for Sheriff Gregory Tony, told commissioners that the "elephant in the room" shaping the request is an unresolved appeal of FY26 funds that BSO rolled into its FY27 ask and the prospect of incoming changes to property-tax law. He said the budget is centered on implementing a salary study aimed at improving recruitment and retention. "The raises are mostly directed at the recruitment and our retention needs," Robson said, adding BSO starting pay is roughly $4,000 below other Broward agencies.

Robson and Colonel Oscar Lena urged urgency: BSO reported approximately 160 law-enforcement vacancies and said it had 689 voluntary separations in the last three years. "We're losing people literally every single week," Robson said, describing the highest attrition at the three-to-five-year mark and the need to move to market median pay to stop turnover.

County staff and commissioners asked detailed questions about what is included in the percentage increases and whether the county would need to pick up costs historically carried inside the sheriff's budget, such as utilities and certain maintenance. Jennifer said the 12.4% number excludes some items historically charged to BSO (utilities, certain facilities maintenance) and that including them would raise the presented figure above 13%.

Colonel Lena noted other cost drivers: a May change in state pension rates for sworn "high-risk" positions increased costs, he said, explaining the post-May pension change added roughly 3.35 percentage points that translate to roughly $6.7 million in additional cost for the agency.

Commissioners pursued staffing and contract specifics. On dispatch, BSO requested 27 additional positions; Lena said several are for a planned special-operations unit tied to Alyssa's Law panic-alarm response and others are supervisory duty officers driven by standard staffing models.

Commissioners also pressed on detention and inmate-health costs. Staff described a rise in catastrophic inmate-care invoices under BSO's third-party medical provider and said the county historically absorbed statutory medical payments tied to arrests; BSO and county staff said there are outstanding invoices and additional requests related to those costs.

On the appeals process, administration staff said the BSO appeal remains under state review with a multi-step staff and administration-commission phase; there is no fixed hearing date yet and discovery-style exchanges continue. Several commissioners said the open-ended appeal complicates planning for FY27 and beyond.

Commissioners also raised the broader fiscal risk posed by a proposed state constitutional amendment that could reduce ad valorem revenue; county staff said the illustrative impact could be sizable and would make recurring increases in discretionary county spending harder to sustain.

What happens next: commissioners directed staff and BSO to continue discussions and asked for supplemental data: detailed salary-study datasets, line-item backup for utility claims, and the dispatch workload justification. BSO offered to present the underlying empirical data behind its salary study and said it welcomed further conversations with county administration.