The Dukes County sheriff’s department will come under control of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts starting in January 2010, according to state legislation awaiting the signature of Gov. Deval Patrick.

Backers of the legislation say the bill will improve a budgetary process which has left the state’s seven remaining sheriffs’ departments scrambling mid-year for additional state funding to cover costs.

The budgets have been funded by a combination of state and county money, see little oversight and are overdependent on real estate deeds excise taxes, argues state Sen. Robert O’Leary, one of the bill’s authors.

“When it comes to things like emergency services it doesn’t make sense to have it funded by something so fickle,” said Mr. O’Leary. “And there wasn’t a lot of accountability; the real estate receipts were divided among the state sheriff’s offices.”

The current system means that some sheriffs find themselves in March or April without the money to make it through the rest of the year, he continued, forcing them to appeal to the state for further funding.

“It was a terrible way to budget,” said Mr. O’Leary.

Originally introduced by the governor’s office, the legislation was altered significantly following lengthy deliberation by both the senate and house of representatives.

The legislation finally emerged Friday from a joint conference committee.

“We’ve improved on the governor’s version,” Mr. O’Leary said yesterday, adding: “We recognized it needed to happen but didn’t want to undercut the counties. The county was stuck with all the liabilities but none of the assets.”

Mr. O’Leary said he expects the governor to approve the legislation as written.

“I have every expectation he will sign the bill,” he said.

Cape and Islands Rep. Timothy Madden spearheaded a change to the bill which keeps the fate of the Dukes County jail under the control of the county.

Under the legislation the county may acquire the building for a nominal fee to use for public safety purposes, should the jail become defunct. It will have first option to pay fair market price should it wish to privatize the building.

Mr. Madden said the provision is particularly important, given that the new bill allows the state to revisit the function of the sheriff’s department, something which may open the door for wholesale changes.

“There have been suggestions along the way, for example, to make the Dukes and Nantucket departments into a single office,” he said.

Mr. Madden said the bill may offer savings in terms of establishing economies of scale and moving to more affordable health care programs used widely at the state level.

“I think it’s a good bill; it’s much better than when it started. It’s still going to be an issue, funding the sheriff’s department,” Mr. Madden said.

The bill would also, eventually, eliminate county and therefore town shares of the sheriff’s budget.

The funding is paid annually to the sheriff’s department by the county and appears as a budget item paid by the six Vineyard towns and Gosnold.

The funding goes up two and a half per cent each year and is spent by the sheriff’s department with no oversight from the county.

Under the new legislation this funding will freeze at the rate for fiscal year 2009 at roughly $480,000; going forward the money will be used to pay for unfunded retirement liabilities associated with the sheriff’s department.

The exact payment schedule will be decided by county administration in collaboration with the state department of finance and administration. Payments will continue until unfunded liabilities are met.

An early iteration of the bill gave pay raises to sheriff Michael McCormack and the Nantucket sheriff, both of whom are paid significantly less than their off-Island counterparts.

Off-Island sheriffs are paid $120,000 per year; Sheriff McCormack’s current salary is fixed in the bill at $97,000.

“The jobs aren’t comparable; it didn’t make sense,” Mr. O’Leary said.

Sheriff McCormack, who is elected, could not be reached yesterday for comment.

But Mr. O’Leary said the legislation will probably translate to less money for the sheriffs in the short term.

“Given the fiscal situation in the new year my guess is the budget will shrink a bit,” he said, “Corrections [jails] is one place where we’re looking to make cuts. It’s a tough time to be coming to the state.”

He added that the payoff will be for the taxpayer in a more efficient system, and for the sheriffs in the ability to plan ahead.

“The taxpayer is better served fiscally, and the sheriffs might have short-term pain, but it will preserve their sanity,” Mr. O’Leary said.