Press: Yes On Jail Bond

We acknowledge weaknesses in the two-pronged proposal county voters will decide on Tuesday. Passage would create an additional half-cent sales tax to pay off a $57 million bond, although its impact will be greatly mitigated by having visitors pay a significant chunk of it, and half of the total will be leveraged to offset property taxes. We further expect additional costs in the future, some of them ongoing. The $57 million does not include all the necessary furnishings for the jail expansion, nor does it satisfactorily address additional personnel and ongoing overhead costs. Yet as imperfect as the proposal is and as difficult as the timing looks for many taxpayers whose income and assets already have been reduced through the recession, we believe the effects of doing nothing now will be heavily outweighed by what will have to be done in the future/ Coeur d’Alene Pres s. More here .

Question: I reluctantly have decided to vote for the jail bond for several reasons, including property tax relief and the fact that it’s cheaper to do the expansion now than later. Have you changed your mind about the jail.