PRINCETON —A 0.2 percent local option income tax dedicated to Gibson County Jail improvements and operation was approved by a 5-1 vote of the Gibson County Council in special session Tuesday night.
The jail tax, proposed as a revenue source to help solve chronic overcrowding and understaffing problems at the Gibson County Jail that led to a class-action federal lawsuit against the county, will be collected beginning in January 2020.
Added to the 0.7 percent local option income tax the county collects now, the new tax raises the total LOIT tax rate to 0.9 percent, which remains lower than 84 of Indiana's 92 counties, Gibson County Attorney James McDonald confirmed.
McDonald brought the option of a local income tax dedicated to jail improvements/operations to the council in July, and following an Aug. 6 public hearing on the issue, members tabled action for several weeks, awaiting the results of a jail study, which is one requirement of enacting such a tax.
Gibson County Board of Commissioners President Steve Bottoms said the results of the jail study are expected to be presented at the 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 meeting of county commissioners. He invited council members to meet in a special session for more review of the study following the public session.
The new 0.2 percent tax is dedicated solely to capital improvements and operation of the Gibson County Jail, raising an estimated $1.5 million per year, at a cost of about $96 more per year to the median $51,000 annual wage-earner in Gibson County.
Financial consultant Matt Eckerle of Baker-Tilly accounting firm told the council earlier this summer that the 0.2 percent jail tax can be imposed for up to 22 years, generating up to $33 million over that time-span. It can also be rescinded at any time.
Although the vote to enact the tax passed 5-1 with only County Councilman Bill McConnell dissenting (Councilman Jeremy Overton was absent Tuesday), the motion by Councilman Mike Stilwell and supporting second by Councilman Derek McGraw wasn't offered with any enthusiasm.
When Council President Jay Riley called for a motion, silence followed for several moments before Stilwell spoke up.
Prior to the motion, Councilman Craig Pflug asked for assurance that the county jail is only housing local inmates, and is no longer housing inmates for the state or other counties. Sheriff Tim Bottoms confirmed the jail isn't housing out-of-county inmates.
According to the federal court case records of the lawsuit against the county, the judge has certified the complaint filed by the Indiana ACLU on behalf of jail inmates as a class action lawsuit. A pre-trial settlement conference is scheduled in January, and the case is preliminarily scheduled to be tried in September 2020.
"We have to do something," Pflug said. "I think the sheriff and the (local) courts have done everything they know to do," he said of the overcrowding issues at the jail.
McConnell spent more than half of the meeting discussing reasons why he thinks the tax is a bad idea. "We all recognize we need to make some improvements over at the jail," he said. "I cannot support a tax to build that jail at this time."
He said he's concerned about the uncertainty of a payroll tax, pointing out recent reports of idled coal mines. "We are in a transition period," he said.
Nothing that only Gibson County residents would pay the local income tax, McConnell said he believes the county could contribute "a couple million dollars" to help "get things in shape to where we can talk to the ACLU," but he is not willing to vote for another tax.
Gibson County Commissioner Mary Key said she believes the jail study and plan is one of many steps the county will have to take. "It will take major dollars whether we remodel, rebuild or relocate," she said. "It could be two to three years before we turn the first shovel or swing the first hammer, but we know we have a problem that we know we need to fix, and we need the money to do it."
After some silence as Riley waited for a motion, Stilwell offered a motion to increase the tax by 0.2 percent. After still more silence, McGraw offered the supporting second, but added "it's with the caveat that we don't have a plan yet and we don't spend any money until we have a plan.
"At the end of the day, we have a problem that isn't fixable with what we have today," he said of the jail, which was opened in 1989.
Stilwell, McGraw, Pflug, Riley and Councilman Dan Beard cast supporting votes to pass the motion.
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