Well all government wages are taxpayer money... but to answer your question. The original intention of the law may have been one thing, but enterprising people

Well all government wages are taxpayer money... but to answer your question. The original intention of the law may have been one thing, but enterprising people are always looking for loopholes. Life hacking is the original hacking after all. And some folks are more ambitious on the scale they're willing to go. At this point the status quo is so traditional, you get to do this if you become sheriff. If managed "right", it's quite a nice perk and people aren't willingly going to give up perks when their number comes up. I mean in the story this sheriff had to take out $150,000 loan because when the last sheriff died his estate got to keep the budget. The new sheriff probably didn't mind all that much, because he knew long term he could pay that loan off and make hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars if he could hold on to the office long term.