The county has been ordered by law to build a new jail to house the rising number of inmates.
Representing the county, Max Adams with the law firm of Barnes and Thornberg explained, “The current local income tax structure in Indiana requires that certain local income tax rated, including the one that’s been proposed tonight, require a vote of the local income tax council of the county. So, the local income tax council is made up of the fiscal bodies of each municipality in the county as well as the county council as a fiscal body for the county.”
Earlier this month, the Kokomo Common Council voted in favor of the LIT increase in order to pay for the new jail. The City of Kokomo had to first approve of the LIT increase before it went to the county and that was done last week.
“This road will only be in effect until 2027,” said Adams, highlighting that this is not a permanent fixture for Howard County taxpayers.
The council allowed time for the public to voice opinions before making its final decision.
The first to voice opposition was Michael Amatuso, who simply said, “I am not a fan of jail or raising taxes.”
Other county residents followed and council members answered the questions presented.
Bethany Wenger asked how SEA 1, property tax legislation, will be affecting the county and how they are preparing to deal with the effects of the legislation.
“We do know, because of the change in property tax, we have significantly fewer dollars coming in and we have to do just as much with those dollars and, in fact, in this case, we have to do more because we are court mandated to build this jail,” Councilman Bryan Alexander, District 4, said.
Although the new jail does not have a set price as of yet, Council President Daryl Maple said it will be around $125-130 million. Maple said there will be a 20-year bond that the county will have to pay on. The money that the LIT raise will cover is just the first year to initially get it started.
“We have to get a revenue stream in so we can bond against it, otherwise we can’t do this,” Maple said.
If the city did not relinquish its portion of the LIT, council members said the county would have had to go to the full 1.2% LIT raise. That would have cost Howard County residents an additional $588 instead of about $180 extra per year.
“The jail will not be paid for in two years, unfortunately, it would be nice if that could happen, but it won’t,” County Commissioner Jake Dodd said. He added that even though $130 million is a lot of money, the cost of construction is rising and investing in a new jail that is not landlocked allows them to expand as needed.
“There are 47 acers there for future uses for the county,” Dodd said.
The current Howard County Jail was built in 1993 after a different lawsuit.
“One thing that is important to remember – to the citizens of Kokomo, they are citizen of Howard County as well, that is why this partnership is so important,” Dodd said. “We talk about Howard County and Howard County citizens utilizing our jail, citizens of Kokomo also utilize our jail.”
The county council will next meet at 4 p.m. Nov. 25 in Room 338 on the third floor of the Howard County Administration Building at 220 N. Main St., Kokomo.
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