Only two people commented during a public hearing Monday night on a proposal to hike taxes to fund a new Monroe County Jail.
The county has been advertising a 0.175 percent income tax increase.
Resident Joe Davis said he wants the county to hold off on the rate increase because there haven’t been any studies to determine what type of facility is needed.
“Nobody has done any kind of baseline study of where we're going to start from and try to improve things,” he said. “DLZ has not done any studies. We really need our own local people to start looking into this and help to figure out what the right process is.”
Davis also noted that the Federal Reserve is expected to lower rates by the end of 2025, which would help lower the overall cost of issuing a bond.
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Seth Mutchler, the other public commentor said he also didn’t support the increase because he views the jail as “stopping short of the solution we want in order to have a solution.”
Councilor Peter Iversen responded by saying the proposed rate is not only raising funds for the jail but also for rehabilitation facilities within the county. He also reiterated that time is of the essence for building a new jail.
“We are taking action because we are under a lawsuit that is mandating that we either take action or folks will come in and take action for us,” he said. “And I firmly believe that if you look at other communities around the state, that if we want to avoid building a dungeon, that we'd better do it ourselves.”
The ACLU filed a lawsuit citing unsafe conditions at the existing downtown jail.
After, the council discussed among themselves that they would like to continue to be included in the planning process of the jail going forward.
The council will vote on the tax rate increase during the budget public hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
UPDATE: The council voted to pass an income tax increase to fund the new jail. Read that story here.
