A roughly $50 million gap between proposed budgets is at the center of debate between the Monroe County Commissioners and county council for the long-stalled jail project.
At a meeting Tuesday, the county council adopted a resolution reiterating their focus on building a new jail in Monroe County and officially taking the ‘North Park’ property out of consideration for the site’s construction.
The council referenced a financial analysis from Financial Services Group in targeting a budget of $118 million for the new facility.
The county commissioners used the same report in a meeting Thursday to reference a maximum budget of $171 million for the project.
That total combines three local income tax funds with the maximum amount of credit the county can raise for the project’s construction. The council’s budget number takes the credit figure and subtracts the amount needed to service the debt.
County attorney Jeff Cockerill said that the $171 million figure is an absolute maximum and uses funds that could be used for other county projects.
“What do we want to afford, what are the tradeoffs of size and location and all that, versus what do we want to keep for cash balances and things like that,” Cockerill said.
The commissioners and council still have to decide where the new jail will be built.
A settlement agreement from a 2008 lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union against the county is set to expire April 15th.
ACLU legal director Ken Falk has indicated that if no clear movement is made to remedy the current jail’s conditions by the deadline, further legal action will be sought.
The county council is set to meet next on March 10.
