Orange County, which takes in Orlando and a dozen other smaller municipalities, has been renting 160 jail beds in neighboring Lake County for $22 per inmate per day for the past two years. Now, however, Orange has reduced its inmate count to 3,700 from 4,250 and no longer needs the additional space.

Next month, Orange is moving 160 inmates back to Orlando from Tavares, FL, the county seat and home of the 982-bed Lake County jail. The move means Lake County will be losing $2 million in rent--$350,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends Sept. 30 and $1.4 million in 2003.

The move may cripple Lake County's projected budget for 2003. "We're scrambling right now, alerting other counties in the state that we have bed and cell space to rent," a county staffer tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. "You can bet our budget department people are taking this very seriously."