HUNTSVILLE, AL -- After six years of seemingly never-ending budget increases, taxpayers have finally caught a break on the Madison County Jail expansion.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle announced that the jail's general contractor, Lee Builders, has agreed to subtract $1.45 million from its final bill.

The negotiated settlement comes on the heels of an independent audit by the city that flagged a number of questionable charges by Lee and several jail subcontractors.

The final tab for the jail will be $79,811,693.31 -- right at $50 million over budget. The city is suing the original builder, Dawson Contracting, in hopes of recovering some of that money.

Battle said Lee Builders agreed to give the city a $595,000 credit for an inmate video visitation system that never worked properly. The city spent $600,000 replacing it with a new system last summer.

The audit also flagged billing errors related to overtime and rental equipment costs, the mayor said, plus meals and entertainment charged to the city that fell outside the scope of the contract.

He said it is "not out of the norm" to have $1.45 million in disputed charges on a nearly $80 million construction job.

"We sat down with Lee Builders, and they worked with us very closely and very well" to clear up the audit, Battle said. "At the end of the process, we both determined there was that much credit due."

A resolution on Thursday's City Council meeting agenda directs the city's Public Building Authority to pay Lee's final bill: $1,178,144 after the reductions.

When the dust settles, the city will have paid Lee and its subcontractors $48,623,324. Lee was hired to finish the Wheeler Avenue lockup in late 2006, after the city terminated Dawson over cracks in a support beam.

Then-Mayor Loretta Spencer agreed to pay Lee 7.5 percent above its costs to finish the jail. Battle said he will steer clear of "cost plus" contracts on future city construction jobs.

Beason & Nalley, a local accounting firm, pored over about 40,000 pages of jail invoices. Finance Director Randy Taylor said the audit cost about $90,000.