Justice facilities tax could go on ballot

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

A proposal to fund expansion of criminal justice facilities may go before Larimer County voters once again.

But the if and when are far from resolved as the county commissioners cautiously authorized further exploring the option. The single certainty is that something's got to give.

A December workshop focused on the potential for extemding a pair of sales taxes set to expire soon. A 0.2 percent tax to fund jail operations is scheduled to end in 2014. Another 0.2 percent sales tax to pay for construction of the detention center and county courthouse office building is set to lapse in 2012.

Together, criminal justice planning manager Gary Darling said, the tax extensions should buy jail beds sufficient for the next six to eight years. Tax revenues could create an additional 80 jail beds--48 low-security beds through a $2 million remodeling of the current alternative sentencing unit and 32 secure beds through reopening a mothballed housing unit at the detention center.

The scenario calls for construction of a new $13.2 million alternative sentencing unit. It would accommodate up to 140 offenders sentenced to work release and as many as 48 sentenced to weekends of useful public service. A kitchen would be included to serve the unit and the detention center.

Darling said the alternative sentencing unit offers the best opportunity for keeping offenders out of jail and allowing them to be contributing members of the community.

But an infusion of new funding would be required for such an expansion. Without it, projections showed continuously increasing costs for subsidizing jail operations.

County budget manager Bob Keister said the sales tax dedicated to operations already does not cover the entire cost. He noted that a $1 million subsidy for jail operations was included in the 2010 budget, and the subsidy could approach $10 million annually after the sales tax expires in 2014.

Such a transfer would deplete reserve funds, Keister said, and likely result in dramatic cuts in other county services.

But Darling and Sheriff Jim Alderden noted that there also are risks in failing to increase capacity of criminal justice facilities. The jail population currently is capped at 460, forcing early release of "low-level" offenders who have completed three-quarters of their sentences.

With more prisoners competing for limited space, "it's going to be riskier people we have to release," Alderden said.

Darling said prisoners should expect to serve their full sentence or the word will spread that those doing the crime don't have to do the time in Larimer County. "That's not good for us," he said.

The trouble is that detention centers are unpopular with taxpayers already soured by the depressed economy. Tax proposals to fund expansion of criminal justice facilities fell flat in two previous attempts.

Timing, outreach and polling are key to a successful campaign for a tax issue, asserted Joshua Magden, vice president of the municipal finance division of George K. Baum, a Denver-based investment bank. He said the firm would make its election team available to the county if selected to market its bonds for a fee.

Jails are always a hard sell, he acknowledged, but in this case the county would be in a better position seeking extension of existing taxes rather than new ones.

Magden said the bottom line for the county is demonstrating the urgency of the need. The difficult decision is whether to attempt demonstrating that urgency in 2010 or 2012, or wait until the wolf is truly at the door in 2014.

The commissioners agreed to proceed with exploring the options. "I don't think we have any choice," said Commissioner Steve Johnson.