ALFRED — Sen. Richard Nass (R-Acton) said he will appeal a vote by the 10-member Legislative Council that rejected an effort to have the full Legislature consider a bill to change some aspects of the jail consolidation law.

Nass said his bill had three parts: It would have allowed York County to use the revenue it receives for boarding prisoners for other county purposes; would have allowed the county’s jail construction debt of about $1.9 million annually to fall under the county’s capped expense of $8.667 million for jail operations; and it would allow the county to charge the jail for administrative costs like payroll processing, pegged at about $150,000 annually.

County officials say they’ve been hampered by the current jail consolidation law that no longer allows the counties to use jail boarding revenue to offset other county expenses. And, they have previously pointed out, while the state is now overseeing county jails statewide, the counties that recently built new jails are still paying for construction debt, on top of paying a capped annual fee for jail operations.

York County government laid-off 24 non-jail workers Sept. 14 in an effort to  offset a $1.3 million shortfall in 2010, at least $900,000 of which they pegged at the loss of boarding revenues.

But even if the appeal is successful at the Nov. 5 Legislative Council session, Nass and other legislators say the bill has an uncertain future, given the state’s own fiscal condition.

“It will be a hard bill to pass,” said Nass.

First however, will come the hurdle at the Legislative Council with the appeal process. The Legislative Council is made up of House and Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle. The council decides which bills will move forward to the Legislature.

Nass said he wondered about the lack of support by Democratic leaders during the Oct. 15 Legislative Council session. When the bill was originally contemplated, Nass said he suggested, given the make-up of the Legislature, that it might have a better chance if presented by a Democrat. Even so, he agreed to submit it, with the understanding that York County Democrats would seek support from Democrats on the Legislative Council, he said. The vote however, came down on party lines, with four Republicans giving the bill the nod and six Democrats rejecting the measure.

“We needed six votes. What happened to the Demcorats?” Nass asked in a recent telephone interview.

Sen. Barry Hobbins (D-Saco) said he was out of the country when the council was meeting Oct. 15.

“I will make the pitch at the appeal,” he said. “This is not the time to play the blame game. The Legislative Council is very selective.”

Neither Nass nor Hobbins are members of the Legislative Council.

Hobbins noted that the Legislative Council turned down 75 percent of the bills presented, including several bills that would have tinkered with the jail consolidation law. Two of the other bills that failed to pass muster with the Legislative Council would have repealed jail consolidation.

He said it seemed the Legislative Council, at least initially, was not open to dealing with issues like jail consolidation that had already been tackled by the Legislature. And, he pointed out, it appeared as if York County was the only county having difficulty with the boarding revenue situation.

“It will be a tough call,” said Hobbins, even if the appeal process is successful, noting the Legislature will likely be consumed with closing a $200 million state budget shortfall.

Nass, for his part, said he’s not sure what the outcome of the Nov. 5 appeals process will be. But he said he’s hopeful the measure will be allowed to move forward to the Legislature ”“ where he agreed there will be another hurdle.

“I’m not sure if the Legislature will go for it,” Nass said.

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.