Senate budget bill sets aside up to $9.9 million for Bristol County sheriff's 2025 costs
The bill would also require the state sheriffs' association to show how each office will live within its budget. Under the current budget, the Bristol office owes the state three reports Monday.
SOUTH COAST The state Senate's budget committee on Thursday sent the full Senate a spending bill that sets aside up to $9.9 million to cover the Bristol County Sheriff's Office's costs from the 2025 fiscal year, money the House left out of its version last week. Senators are scheduled to take up the bill Nov. 5.
The money sits in item 1599-8925 of the Senate Ways and Means bill, Senate No. 3290, a $110.2 million reserve "to support costs incurred by the 14 county sheriffs' offices in fiscal year 2025." The item caps what 12 of the 14 offices may receive, and those 12 caps add up to the full $110.2 million. Bristol's cap is $9,917,965, the fourth largest, behind the Hampden, Suffolk and Plymouth sheriffs' offices at about $27.1 million, $22.3 million and $16.8 million.
The bill also adds $134.6 million to the sheriffs' reserve for fiscal 2026 costs, item 1599-8910. That line names no office, so the bill does not say how much of it would reach Bristol County. Together the two reserves come to about $244.8 million statewide, in a bill with about $2.48 billion in direct appropriations.
Where the governor and the House stand
Gov. Maura Healey asked for both reserves in the supplemental budget she filed Sept. 23, writing in her filing letter that "additional appropriations are needed to cover FY25-26 expenses for sheriffs." Her bill set the same $9,917,965 cap on Bristol's share of the 2025 money and would have capped its share of the 2026 reserve at about $13.3 million. The Senate committee kept her 2025 caps but did not write in her office-by-office limits for 2026.
The House bill, H.5700, which passed 152 to 0 on Oct. 21, carries neither reserve. Both chambers' versions do include a separate fiscal 2026 transfer of about $1.65 million to the Bristol office from a state trust fund for voice communication services.
Conditions on the money
The Senate committee attached conditions that were not in the governor's bill. Within 30 days of the bill becoming law, the Massachusetts Sheriffs Association would have to send the House and Senate budget committees a spending plan for each of the 14 offices. Each plan has to show the office's total spending for fiscal 2027 without going over its appropriation for that year or over its total spending in fiscal 2026, and it must "include and describe any changes to services and staffing levels required" to stay within those limits.
A separate section would add a line to the fiscal 2027 state budget saying that "in no instance shall a sheriff's office spend or obligate funding that is greater than said sheriff's actual spending in fiscal year 2026 if said amount of spending exceeds the amount appropriated for said sheriff's office."
Rules already on the books
The fiscal 2027 budget, approved July 9, already says no sheriff's office may spend into deficiency in fiscal 2027. An office that needs more money has to document the need to the state's Executive Office for Administration and Finance and the comptroller before the governor files a supplemental budget to cover it. An office that ends the year in deficiency without that documentation, or does not follow state hiring and spending controls, goes under a sheriff fiscal oversight council set up by that budget. If an office under the council misses its financial targets or plan, the council can appoint a receiver to run it.
That budget gives the Bristol office about $63.5 million across four lines, including about $47.1 million for staff costs and $14.2 million for operations. It also requires the office to file three reports by Monday, Nov. 2, with the administration and finance office and the House and Senate budget committees. One covers payroll: the number of full-time equivalent employees, each employee's salary and bargaining unit, the cost of union contracts over the next 12 months and any plans to hire. Another breaks down every program and service the office runs, what each one costs and how participants fare, including their recidivism and employment rates after release. The third covers the office's medication-assisted treatment program: how many people take part, the type and dosage of medications given and what they cost. Quarterly reports on the free phone and other communication services the office provides start the same day.
Who runs the office
Sheriff Paul Heroux, a former Attleboro mayor and state representative, was elected in 2022 and took office in January 2023, according to the sheriff's office. The office is based at 400 Faunce Corner Road in North Dartmouth.
What happens next
The full Senate takes up S.3290 on Thursday, Nov. 5. Because the Senate committee rewrote the House bill in full, the two chambers will have to agree on one final text before it goes to the governor. Neither sheriffs' reserve is in hand until that bill is signed.
Sen. Michael J. Rodrigues, who represents the First Bristol and Plymouth District, signed the report for the Ways and Means Committee; his State House office is at 617-722-1114 or Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov. Residents can find their own senator and representative by street address with the Find My Legislator tool at malegislature.gov. The sheriff's office can be reached at 508-995-1311.
Earlier: Senate committee keeps $2 million reserve that New Bedford lawmakers tie to Fire Station 9.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact about the money and the rules comes from the Legislature's own records, read Oct. 30: the S.3290 text and report page, the committee summary posted with it, the H.5700 bill history and House-passed text, the governor's H.5679 text and filing letter, and the fiscal 2027 budget, Chapter 137 of the Acts of 2026. We added the caps and the Bristol budget lines ourselves and checked the totals against the bill. The sheriff's biography and the office's address and phone come from the Bristol County Sheriff's Office's own site, and the senator's district and contact details from his Legislature profile. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar.
Corrections
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Sources (8)
- Massachusetts Legislature: S.3290, Senate Ways and Means text of the supplemental budget (Oct. 29, 2026)Report page: direct appropriations $2,476,841,267.00, signed for the committee by Michael J. Rodrigues. Section 2, item 1599-8910 Sheriffs Reserve, $134,605,398. Section 2A, item 1599-8925, $110,199,558, Bristol cap $9,917,965 and the 30-day spending-plan proviso. Section 154 (spending limit added to chapter 137, section 112(b)). Section 166 ($1,653,987 to the Bristol sheriff's office for voice communication services). Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Massachusetts Legislature: committee summary posted with S.3290Lists $134.6M for fiscal year 2026 and $110.2M for fiscal year 2025 costs incurred by the 14 county sheriffs' offices, and the sheriff spending limit. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Massachusetts Legislature: H.5700 bill historyOct. 21, 2026: passed to be engrossed 152 YEAS to 0 NAYS. Oct. 26: referred to Senate Ways and Means. Oct. 29: committee recommended the text of S3290; placed in the Orders of the Day for Thursday, November 5, 2026. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Massachusetts Legislature: H.5700, the bill as passed by the House Oct. 21, 2026No item 1599-8925 or 1599-8910; the Communications Access Trust Fund transfer carries $1,653,987 to the Bristol sheriff's office. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Massachusetts Legislature: H.5679, the governor's supplemental budget (filed Sept. 23, 2026)Filing letter quote on sheriffs; item 1599-8910, $134,605,398; item 1599-8925, $110,199,558 with the $9,917,965 Bristol cap; Section 161, $13,285,024 Bristol cap on the fiscal 2026 reserve. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Massachusetts Legislature: Chapter 137 of the Acts of 2026, the fiscal 2027 state budget (approved July 9, 2026)Bristol sheriff items 8910-8300 ($14,186,576), 8910-8301 ($47,097,864), 8910-8302 ($549,587) and 8910-8303 ($1,653,987), with the Nov. 2, 2026 report requirements in 8910-8300, 8910-8301 and 8910-8302 and the quarterly reports beginning Nov. 2 in 8910-8303; Section 112 on sheriff deficiencies and the sheriff fiscal oversight council. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Bristol County Sheriff's Office: Meet the SheriffHeroux elected 2022, sworn in January 2023, former Attleboro mayor and state representative; office address and phone. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Massachusetts Legislature member profile: Sen. Michael J. RodriguesFirst Bristol and Plymouth; State House phone (617) 722-1114 and email Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov. Read Oct. 30, 2026.