Instead of saving money, the closure of the Petersburg Jail will cost city taxpayers at least $1.2 million extra each year, a Free Press analysis has determined.

Figures from Petersburg’s government confirm the newspaper’s finding that closing the jail is more expensive than keeping it open, belying claims from Mayor W. Howard Myers and three other council members who supported the jail’s shutdown.

That extra cost is embedded in the proposed budget that Petersburg City Manager William E. Johnson III presented recently to the seven-member Petersburg City Council. His proposed budget also provides no raises for city employees and no increase in city contributions to the public schools.

A review of city and state documents show Petersburg, a city of 33,000 people, has been spending about $3.5 million a year of city revenue to cover expenses of the jail and the sheriff’s other operations.

According to Mr. Johnson’s budget, the closing of the jail means Petersburg will have to spend $4.71 million a year in the fiscal year beginning July 1 to cover the cost of housing inmates at the Riverside Regional Jail and to pay for remaining operations of the sheriff.

In other words, residents of Petersburg who have been paying $106 per person for the sheriff’s operations will now be paying $142 per year, an increase of $36 per person.

Here’s why the city’s cost is going up: The jail’s closure will wipe out most of the state’s $4 million annual contribution to Petersburg for operating its own jail and for other work performed by the sheriff’s office.

State support for the sheriff’s office is estimated to drop from $4 million a year to $530,000 in the 2015-2016 fiscal year, according to Mr. Johnson’s budget plan — an 87 percent drop.

The result: The city will have to spend more of its own taxpayers’ dollars to cover the remaining expenses of the sheriff’s office and to house all of its inmates at Riverside.

Along with spending more, the city also will be wiping out the jobs of 74 sheriff’s deputies and staff members whose household spending has contributed to Petersburg’s economy.

City spokeswoman Jay Ell Alexander stated that the closing would save Petersburg $10 million to $12 million — the cost of building a new jail. The city would have to borrow that money and would need to spend $1.8 million annually to pay back the debt on a new jail, according to figures she provided.

But it is questionable whether Petersburg must replace its jail.

“A new jail is not needed,” according to Sheriff Vanessa Crawford. She said she repeatedly has told Mr. Johnson that the problems with the Petersburg jail could be resolved easily. She said the jail needs only a working elevator and replacement of a worn-out air conditioning system.

The cost of the needed work would be far less than building a new jail, according to the city’s estimates. For example, the city budgeted $192,500 this year get the air conditioning system in shape at the Petersburg jail and annex. That’s less than the cost of a new jail or the $4.5 million that would be needed to build a new lockup.

The jail, once closed, is to serve as a temporary lockup, though the city has yet to spend the money to ensure the building is fully air conditioned.

Sheriff Crawford said the closing will leave the sheriff’s office with only 21 positions, including her own. She started the year with 95 positions approved by the city. She is now laying off most of the deputies and staff.

Along with losing staff, she said the city also will be losing thousands of hours of labor from inmates to keep up the city’s cemetery, to mow grass in parks and at other public spaces and to provide set-up and take-down service at public and nonprofit events.

She estimates inmate labor enabled the city to avoid spending up to $1 million a year to hire private companies or new employees to do the work.

Even with the loss of the jail, the sheriff still will be responsible for courthouse security, service of legal papers and the operation of a lockup for prisoners arriving from Riverside to go to court or awaiting transfer back to Riverside. The state does not pay for deputies who serve at a lockup.

Mr. Johnson’s budget plan indicates that the city will spend about $830,000 to support the sheriff’s work, along with gaining $530,000 in state reimbursement.

The city’s estimate does not include such expenses as the use of at least three police officers to handle inmate transport, extra wear-and-tear on vehicles and higher gas costs.

Once the jail and the jail annex closes, a process the sheriff began last week and expects to complete by April 15, the state compensation board will provide funding only for the sheriff and eight other positions. The city will have to cover the full salary and benefits of at least 12 other employees in the sheriff’s department.

Petersburg’s biggest jail expense will be to house people at Riverside, without receiving any state offset.

Petersburg in recent years has housed about 70 people a day at Riverside at a cost of about $40 a day per inmate, the sheriff said. This year, the city budgeted about $1.1 million to cover that cost.

Mr. Johnson’s proposed budget projects spending $3.8 million to house inmates at Riverside in the fiscal year that begins July 1.