At a June meeting, Seward County Sheriff Mike Vance delivered grim financial news to county board members: The Sheriff’s Office was on the verge of a budget shortfall. If county leaders didn’t help, he wouldn’t be able to pay three deputies in a matter of weeks.
During his plea, Vance blamed the delay in funding on the Biden administration. At a subsequent meeting, he said that once the Big Beautiful Bill passed, clogged federal funding would again flow to Seward County. “… They have to give it to us,” Vance said during that meeting. “I’m not worried about them not giving it to us.”
What Vance didn’t tell county leaders: The government had recently halted the sheriff’s use of federal dollars after a U.S. Department of Treasury review found that the Seward County Sheriff’s Office had spent $762,000 on “impermissible” spending on salaries over three years…