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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- One county's leaders are questioning how much surplus the state's regional jail system keeps in its accounts. 

Cabell County Commissioner Scott Bias said the commission recently requested financial information from the Regional Jail Authority, and calculated that the system had more than $30 million than it needed in its accounts for last fiscal year.

"We have serious questions about their budget," Bias said. "They're building a huge surplus and charging the counties for it."

Counties pay the jail authority a daily fee of $47.53 per inmate. In July, that will increase to $48.25. 

Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, appointed a subcommittee to look at the jail authority's budget.

The authority needs to "have a healthy surplus," Helmick said. But every cost must be scrutinized, especially in lean times, he added.

Cabell County has a history of disputes with the jail authority. In 2007, the state Supreme Court ordered the county to pay $1.8 million in jail fees. The county had refused to pay after a 2004 increase in the fee, saying it had been calculated unfairly.

The county has worked at reducing its jail bills, but the costs still account for about 20 percent of its budget, Bias said.

Joe Thornton, deputy secretary of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said jail officials welcome the legislative review of the budget.

But he denied that the jail authority has done anything improper with surpluses. 

State law allows the authority to keep a minimum of three months of operational expenses, about $19 million, "in case counties like Cabell don't pay their bills," he said.

By law, any surplus either goes toward the system's operational expenses for the next year - which helps lower the per diem - or back into the state's general revenue fund, Thornton said.

The authority understands the fiscal challenges facing counties, and has made sacrifices to keep the per diem as low as possible, he said.

"With the costs of everything around us going up, the per diem is still lower than it was two years ago" when it was $48.50, Thornton said.

For instance, the jail board considered doubling its maintenance fund to $4 million, but decided against it, Thornton said. 

Bias said he's pleased a legislative committee will scrutinize the system's budget, but will have to wait to see what comes of it.

Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1240.