White County Sheriff Q3 Candidate Responses

The Main Street Journal – Sparta has been listening to the community. Over the past several weeks, readers have submitted questions they want answered ahead of the 2026 election—and we’ve taken those directly to your White County Sheriff candidates.

Here is your third question, and answers from those candidates who chose to respond.

We have seen that the Sheriff’s office has been underfunded for several years (like many other departments of the County). How will you approach County Government to increase funding for new and changing requirements?

STEVE PAGE: I will never try to force the county government to fund something that the citizens can’t afford. As a property owner in this county myself, I understand that we do not want taxes to be any higher than they already are. State mandated requirements do have to be funded and there is nothing we can do to prevent that from happening. I will continue to look for Grants to help fund the needs of the Sheriff Department and strive to work within the budget that the county commission approves.

DANIEL TRIVETTE: As I have sat and watched the budget session these past few months, I have discussed the budget with several current commissioners and candidates, and I have filed freedom of information requests for several years of budgets from the Sheriff's Office. A few things I have noticed. First, costs for everything are going up. From tires, uniforms, vehicles, oil changes, equipment, insurance, to maintenance costs, nothing is getting cheaper. It is time to limit our budget requests to needs vs. wants and focus on creative ways to reduce costs to ease the growing burden on the taxpayer. Too many times, I watched programs and equipment being purchased one year and then the next year a budget request came in to expand the department’s budget to pay the recurring costs for the subscription of that equipment. That is putting the cart before the horse. We should be asking the county commission if they are willing to provide additional funding for yearly recurring costs for a project prior to purchasing or starting the project. Tough cuts focusing on needs vs wants are crucial to being an effective leader in tough times. Scrutinizing a budget to see what can be cut in order to reallocate funding to another area of need is so important.

Productive conversations with commissioners include honest conversations, the ability to truly articulate your needs effectively, and compromise on budget requests to prevent unnecessary burdens on the taxpayers. Too often I witnessed budget requests get denied because the need was not properly presented. A leader must understand what he is asking for to truly be effective in asking for that need. The county commissioners need to hear the need directly from the sheriff. It is the sheriff who should be able to truly articulate how the budget request helps to move the department forward. I have the experience to be able to correctly present the needs of our agency and lead our agency forward successfully.

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