GREENFIELD — Whether it’s raising property taxes or income taxes, many Hancock County residents still say they don’t want their elected officials to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to build a bigger county jail.
Several people on Tuesday night spoke out against a proposal to increase the county’s local income tax by 0.2 percent to construct a new 440-bed jail. More than 50 people attended the Hancock County Council’s public hearing on the issue, the first evening gathering since voters turned down a $55 million property tax referendum last spring to pay for a jail and other criminal justice facility upgrades.
Over the past few months, the council and Hancock County Commissioners decided to switch the location of the jail — moving it from downtown Greenfield to land along U.S. 40 between County Roads 400E and 500E — as well as paid an Indianapolis-based firm, RQAW, to redo the facility’s design.
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The county’s income tax rate could rise from 1.74 percent to 1.94 percent — bringing in about $4 million a year — if the council approves the proposed hike. That means a person earning $50,000 a year would pay an additional $100 in income tax, or nearly $4 less take-home pay per paycheck if paid on a bi-weekly basis.
Some in the crowd Tuesday said they’re not confident council members have looked into other alternatives to pay for a jail, such as cutting money out of the county’s budget. Others said they’re not prepared for higher income taxes and aren’t convinced the county is looking out for the well-being of taxpayers.
Typically in a public hearing, a government board asks members of the public to state their names and addresses for the record before officially giving their thoughts on an issue. The county council did not do this on Tuesday, so no person who spoke provided his or her name for the official public hearing record.
Bill Dalton, of Greenfield, told the Daily Reporter after the meeting that he’s not in favor of the income tax increase. He would rather see the county implement a flat tax instead of a set percentage.
“So to tell somebody that you make more money you need to pay more money toward something that we all receive the same benefit from, I just don’t think is the right way to do it,” Dalton said.
Dalton, who voted against last May’s property tax referendum, said there’s no doubt the county needs a new jail, but it needs to find another way to pay for it.
Bill Bolander, president of the council council, said after the meeting that he thought the hearing went well, adding it’s important for the council to hear from the public. During the meeting, Bolander countered residents’ complaints by saying the county doesn’t have enough time to look into other funding alternatives and told those who spoke to come up with better ideas than raising taxes to pay for a jail.
“Nobody likes the tax increasing, but nobody wants their car broken into, either,” Bolander said.
The 0.2 percent increase will collect taxes for no longer than 20 years. The county also plans to issue a revenue bond to get funds sooner. A revenue bond is a type of municipal bond that finances income-producing projects. The council has to approve the income tax increase before issuing the bond.
The commissioners on Tuesday morning signed a resolution that estimates the total jail project to cost about $43 million. That includes between $36 million and $37 million for design and construction and an additional $5 million in soft costs, such as interest and bond issuance expenses.
The Hancock County Jail, a 157-bed facility, housed 213 inmates on Tuesday, said Sheriff Brad Burkhart. Sixty-five other inmates are being held outside the county, he added, and 55 of those are sentenced Level 6 felons staying in LaGrange and Daviess counties. The county loses out on a $35-a-day reimbursement from the state for each Level 6 felon housed outside of Hancock County.
Burkhart said half of $1.2 million the state gave Hancock County last year for sentenced Level 6 felons was paid to LaGrange and Daviess counties. The jail currently houses 61 Level 6 inmates, he said.
Not only is the county losing funding, Burkhart said, but the overcrowding is burdening offenders who seek treatment. There’s not enough room for adequate recovery programs, he said.
The proposed jail will allow the department to create “therapeutic communities” within one of the two pods in the facility, Burkhart said. Many inmates have drug addiction and mental health issues, he said. Probation employees have been working with inmates on rehabilitation plans. Having extra space in the new jail will improve the program and allow more people to get the help they need, Burkhart said.
“We teach them to get better; we teach them how to act out in society better,” Burkhart said. “We can transition them out into the general public and so they hopefully, with any luck, don’t come back. That’s really the main goal — we don’t want people to come back to jail.”
The county council might vote on the 0.2 percent tax increase next Wednesday, Feb. 13, but that could be held off a month. At a Wednesday morning budget committee meeting, members of the council and commissioners asked the county’s financial consultant, Greg Guerrettaz, and county attorney, Scott Benkie, to double check the timeline of the revenue bond before moving forward with the tax increase.
That’s because of a proposed income tax bill by Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, and other possible state bills that could get introduced in the session. If a bill extends the income tax to last 22 years instead of 20 years, officials say they want make sure the county can take advantage of that longer period of time if the law changes after they approve an increase under current state statute.
County council members, however, plan to vote on a resolution to move forward on the jail’s design and construction next Wednesday. The council has already appropriated $500,000 toward the next fee owed to RQAW, and they will need to appropriate an additional $1.1 million to cover design fees before bidding can start. Since 2015, the county has paid RQAW at least $1.3 million to study and design a county jail.
