County seeks $50 million for jail

Kootenai County taxpayers will eventually have to pay to expand the jail.

The question is how and when.

Kootenai County is asking voters Nov. 8 to approve a half-cent local option sales tax that would allow a $50 million jail expansion to nearly double the number of beds and add a new kitchen, laundry facility and space for records storage. The deal also would include at least $50 million in property tax relief, because the sales tax option requires that at least as much money raised for the jail also goes toward reducing property taxes.

It’s the same way the county is currently paying for the $12 million jail expansion that voters approved in 2000.

Not everybody is happy with the package. The loudest opponent is Concerned Businesses of North Idaho, the area’s largest business lobby.

Its members think that the $50 million price tag is too high and that the ballot language is too vague, giving the county too much flexibility on how to spend the money.

Last week, just 28 days before the election, the group asked the county commission to take the measure off the ballot and rework the language so it can go back to voters in May.

The commission refused.

Concerned Businesses agrees that a jail expansion is needed and that the half-cent sales tax is the best way to pay for it. Yet the group thinks the county should be more forthcoming with voters.

“They should not be given an open checkbook,” board member Brad Dugdale said.

He’s worried that because the language says “detention facility” rather than “jail expansion,” the money could be used for some other project. And that, he said, is deceptive toward voters.

Commission Chairman Gus Johnson said that the group bases its facts on inflated numbers and that the voters – not a “splinter group” – should decide.

The expansion to the county jail on Government Way is expected to cost $30 million. The remaining $20 million is set aside for design, financing and a contingency fund that would pay for any problems with construction or unplanned expenses.

The county would have 10 years to pay off the project.

If the project is paid off early, like the current expansion, the county could stretch out the pay period over the entire 10 years to ensure that property owners get the most tax relief possible.

Concerned Businesses argues that the half-cent sales tax should sunset when the expansion is paid off so the county doesn’t have to continue paying interest. The extra property tax relief wouldn’t be a big enough incentive to prolong the debt and would only give the county a cushion so the blow of raised taxes isn’t so dramatic to taxpayers, Dugdale said.

“By having extra money come in, what’s your incentive to run a really tight budget?” he asked.

He also thinks the county could save money by reducing the $20 million estimated for “soft costs” by several million dollars.

Colleen Allison, chairman of the county’s jail expansion citizens advisory committee and a county grant writer, said the group doesn’t understand that unlike private business the county has to estimate all the costs up front and doesn’t have the ability to go back and ask for more money. If everything goes well and the $20 million isn’t needed, the county won’t spend it, she said. Same goes with construction costs.

The business group also questions the cost of staffing the jail after the expansion.

None of the $50 million would go toward paying for new staff to manage the larger facility. The county commission will have to add those costs to the budget each year. Overall, the county expects to have 75 new positions during the next 10 years, at an additional cost of $8.6 million.

Allison said that even if the jail isn’t expanded, the county will need more employees.

“We would have to have more staff to handle the nightmare that would happen,” she said.

If the measure fails, the county would likely ask voters next year to pass a bond. Allison estimates that would cost the county an extra $10 million.

If a bond didn’t pass, a judge could order the county to expand the jail and demand a bond.

The price tag on the proposed expansion is a lot higher than the last $12 million renovation because of the need for a maximum security pod, where the 162 cells would each have individual plumbing. The self-contained cells are needed to handle the county’s increasingly dangerous criminals, Allison said.

“We’re having to isolate more, but there’s no place to put them,” she said.