After months of overcrowding at the jail, an expansion is needed and planning is in the works, but the key question is how the project and the staff and operating expenses will be paid for.
County officials said they want to consider multiple options, and one of them is a local income tax increase.
The increase is one local officials have discussed for years, but never had the backing to approve. The state offers counties a few different options to increase the local income tax, including for economic development and public safety expenses, which were changed recently to give counties more flexibility to increase the local income tax for local expenses. And during this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers approved another option that allows an income tax increase to pay for correctional or rehabilitational facilities.
All of those options are being considered, county officials said.
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For taxpayers, that could mean an increase in the local income tax, which is currently at 1 percent. Under state law, options the county is considering would allow an increase of as little as 0.2 percentage points to as much as 1.5 percentage points. For a person making $50,000 per year, his or her annual income tax currently is $500. But, depending on what was approved, that amount could increase to $600 or as much as $1,250.
No proposals have been made, and local officials said any discussions are still early. Officials also are discussing borrowing money to pay for the construction of the jail expansion, which would likely be paid back with property tax dollars.
But increasing the local income tax also is being considered, because that money could pay for long-term expenses, such as staff and operating costs in a larger jail, and could also be used for other expenses, such as economic development or expanding other programs.
One key question is whether the tax would be shared with other local communities.
Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers has been asking state lawmakers repeatedly for an option that would allow the city to collect more funding for public safety, including to add police officers and firefighters. His recent attempts to get a local food and beverage tax approved have not been successful, and he wants county officials to consider a local income tax to help pay those costs, he said.
“One way or another, we have to do something to address public safety,” he said.
Both the economic development income tax and the increase that would devote more money to public safety would collect money that would then be divided among other local governments, which they could use for their own local expenses.
County council members James Ison, who also works for the Greenwood Police Department, sees that aspect as a selling point for an increased income tax. Local communities could use that money for more resources to fight the opioid epidemic, which is leading to crime in every community, including home burglaries and vehicle break-ins. That is a tangible benefit for taxpayers in exchange for paying higher taxes, outside of their money being used to house jail inmates, he said.
Taxpayers spoke clearly in 2010 when they turned down a property tax increase to fund a jail expansion, he said.
“The bottom line is no one wants to pay for inmates in the jail, but it is a necessary evil,” he said.
But with a tax increase that allows other communities to add police officers or other resources, that could help address the drug issue and potentially even reduce the jail population long-term. And with the way the county has been growing in recent years, more resources are necessary, he said.
“With us growing the way we are, we have to keep up,” he said.
Commissioner Ron West and county council member Pete Ketchum would not be supportive of sharing the revenue from a tax hike with other communities because that would leave the county with less money for the jail project, they said.
Instead, they are interested in a new option that is allowed specifically for a rehabilitational or correctional facility, which was approved by state lawmakers this year. That option would allow officials to increase the local income tax rate by up to 0.2 percentage points, for a total local income tax rate of 1.2 percent.
West wants the county to consider that option not only for a jail expansion, but also for a long discussed replacement of the county’s community corrections program that was put on hold due to the jail overcrowding. That program houses offenders on work release and also oversees home detention.
That program has a better chance at being successful in rehabilitating offenders because it offers more than just incarceration, West said.
Officials had discussed including space for classes and programs as part of a new facility, and that is something West would still like to see happen. Those programs could focus on the issues offenders are facing, such as with substance abuse, to have a better chance at rehabilitation, he said.
County council member Rob Henderson said he wants to explore the economic development income tax further to see how the county might be able to use that money for other programs and projects, which could help address the opioids crisis and potentially go into economic development as well, he said.
All options could be considered and county council member Josh McCarty said he wants to be able to consider them and talk with members of the committee that have been planning the jail expansion to see what their proposals are.
