YAKIMA, Wash.-- Yakima County commissioners finalize their budget for next year, including some pretty big cuts for a lot of departments.
Unfortunately, some of those cuts lead to layoffs. The majority coming from the Yakima County Department of Corrections.
The DOC has announced they'll be laying off 11 employees, including nine corrections officers.
The move comes after a $1.2-million budget cut for the DOC, caused by a continued loss in bed rentals to inmates from other counties.
But, corrections isn't the only department taking a hit. In fact, a total of $1.6-million will be cut from the Sheriff's Office, courts, clerks, and prosecutor's office, all to offset the losses from the DOC.
But commissioners say they're hopeful things will turn around.
"We have reconciled our budget. So I suspect that in the future years, 2014 and beyond, we will actually be putting more money back into the budgets," said commissioner Mike Leita.
Leita says he hopes to see jail bed rentals start climbing again, after losing about $18-million in revenue since the end of 2010.
Along with the Department of Corrections, there are a total of about eight other layoffs that will happen throughout other county departments.
