- The Jackson County Jail Ad-Hoc Committee voted to put jail renovations back on the ballots in 2024.
- This proposed renovation will cost taxpayers .90 mills, or to a $200,000 homeowner, $90 per year for 20 years.
- Issues of public safety, security, and overcrowding remain at the Jackson County Jail.
It's an issue everyone cares about, keeping the streets safe in your neighborhood...but people also care about property taxes. Now, those issues are going head to head on the ballot in 2024.
A familiar issue is to reappear in an upcoming election, a tax, or millage, that will go towards renovating the county jail. The Jail Ad-Hoc committee's purpose is to discuss how the jail millage should look in an upcoming election. Local leaders, including Commissioner Corey Kennedy, decided to let voters determine whether or not the jail would be renovated. This would cost the owner of a $200,000 home $90 per year for 20 years, less than the proposed tax in 2022. The committee also has a goal of making the tax more "palatable for the general public to accept."
Kennedy shared, "A lot of people don't look at a jail as something that helps them. They look at that as something that 'Hey, I'm using that every day...I don't plan on going to jail. Why would I fund it?' but the reality is, a jail is vital."
If this doesn't pass, it could mean more than just the issue of overcrowding at the jail. Sheriff Gary Schuette shared, "We have to pull deputies off the street, and, of course, that is a public safety concern. They should be out patrolling. They should be out responding to calls, responding to accidents, and things of that nature. That's a routine measure. Those should be instances that occur on an emergency basis."
The commissioners will decide which ballot the tax increase proposal will appear on in an upcoming Jail Ad-Hoc meeting.
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