Property tax defeat drives justice fee proposal

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

Larimer County's proposal to become the first in Colorado to implement a jail impact fee could prove a tough sell if the reservations expressed by local elected officials are any indication.

Little enthusiasm greeted a recent letter from commission chairman Glenn Gibson to mayors of municipalities across the county.

Sent in the wake of the decisive 63-to-37-percent voter rejection of a tax proposal to fund expansion of the jail and alternatives to incarceration, the letter was aimed at assessing interest in exploring an impact fee to finance criminal justice needs, according to county manager Frank Lancaster.

If they are open to further discussion, Lancaster said, the next step would be retaining consultants for a $25,000 feasibility study.

Impact fees typically are tacked onto the cost of building permits. Locally, impact fees are assessed for building schools, roads and parks to serve new residents. While no other Colorado county currently collects criminal justice impact fees, Lancaster said, they are common elsewhere, especially in Florida.

Larimer County of its own accord could impose a criminal justice impact fee for development occurring in the unincorporated areas of the county. But, Lancaster said, county revenues alone would be insignificant because "that's not where the growth is happening."

To really make a dent in future criminal justice needs, he said, the municipalities would have to join the county in collecting such impact fees. Lancaster said the commissioners have not yet decided whether that would be an all-or-nothing proposition, but he said it clearly would have to include the bigger cities. "If Fort Collins didn't want to, there's probably no use going there," Lancaster said.

Mayor Doug Hutchinson said that's surely not a path the city would go down casually.

"I'm not excited by fees, so we'd want to look at it pretty carefully," he said.

Noting the city council's "enormous, heroic efforts" to avoid imposing new parks and transportation fees, Hutchinson insisted that any fees need to be "directly connected with what the service is and they should be minimum."

Wellington Mayor Larry Noel was equally pessimistic saying, "I just don't think it will fly. We've got enough fees."

Timnath Mayor Donna Benson was more receptive, saying she was disappointed the ballot issue failed and that the town would be willing to participate in discussions with the county. However, she said, Timnath cannot assess a criminal justice impact fee because "we have locked in the amount of impact fees and we can't change that."

Regardless of whether the criminal justice impact fee becomes a reality, Lancaster said, the county must continue working to relieve jail overcrowding and secure funding to cover the $14 million deficit when the current jail operating tax expires in seven years.

"It's not going to go away," he said.

Lancaster said the jail advisory committee continues to meet and is already discussing how to bring the criminal justice tax issue back again next year in a different form.

He said two consultants from the National Institute of Corrections will arrive here this month to assess the situation and offer recommendations to staff involved with the criminal justice system.