White County Sheriff Q4 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 fourth question, and answers from those candidates who chose to respond.

Are there any areas where you will be able to find and cut some of your department’s budget spending, helping to offset some of the underfunded issues?

STEVE PAGE: I evaluate the necessities of the White County Sheriff’s Office before every budget cycle to be sure that we are not asking for anything that is not necessary. If the County Commission votes no on a requested item, then we honor what they say. I never want to be a burden on the citizens by being the reason taxes are being raised.

DANIEL TRIVETTE: It's time to look at our payroll and see how we can efficiently use our manpower to deal with the increasing needs of our community. This doesn’t mean we are firing people, it means that it is time to remove positions out of the office and reallocate that funding to a boots-on-the-ground position. It is time to start looking for ways to work with other state and federal agencies in order to access resources and funding for our officers. There are too many broken relationships between the Sheriff Office and the various agencies we have worked well with in the past. Some of these agencies have provided funding in the past to help improve officer compensation and resources. There are grants and positions that I will seek with other state and federal agencies that will bring crucial funding to our agency. Some of these relationships may take some time to be restored but I will be working year one to start that process. These relationships also provide us valuable resources to help us protect our community to the best of our ability. It is time to purchase efficient vehicles and not necessarily high end vehicles that drain our vehicle and maintenance budgets. As leaders we must look at our budget the same as we would our own personal budgets. We must continually evaluate our budgets and make decisions to cut those things that we just don’t need or look for creative ways to save money to make ends meet.

As I have talked to folks throughout the county I quickly recognized the need for more patrol level positions without asking for more money from the taxpayers. This is what I have to offer the county is the ability to develop working plans to address the issues we face without putting an unnecessary additional burden on the taxpayers.

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