Tax to Build Jails Put on June Ballot

A half-cent sales-tax increase that would raise $1.6 billion for jails and courtrooms was placed on the June ballot Tuesday.

By a unanimous vote, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors rejected the recommendation of the Regional Criminal Justice Facility Financing Agency, which on Monday urged the board to schedule a special April election to dramatize the need for new jails and courts. Instead, the supervisors, prompted in part by concerns over the cost of a special election and strategic considerations on the timing of the proposed tax-increase campaign, opted to include the measure in the June primary.

The supervisors’ action came even though Sheriff John Duffy and others warned the board that the sales-tax increase could face tougher odds for success in June than in April. Though the measure would have been the only issue in April, it could be overshadowed in June, Duffy said, by the presidential primary and other high-profile races.

‘Odds for Passage Hurt’

“The odds have been diminished by the action today,” Duffy said after the vote. “I think it has less of a chance. We’ll have to raise more money, and we’ll have to work harder.”

Several supervisors, however, argued that the plan might fare better in June because of the likely higher voter turnout. Moreover, the supervisors expressed reluctance to spend $750,000 on a special election at a time when numerous county programs face cuts because of severe budget constraints.

The proposed increase, if approved by voters, would raise the county’s sales tax to 7%. Currently, the sales tax is 6%, but it is scheduled to climb to 6.5% this spring as a result of the public’s approval last November of Proposition A, a measure designed to improve regional transportation.

During Tuesday’s debate, the oft-used complaint that a sales tax is a regressive form of taxation drew sympathy--but not votes--from the supervisors, who lamented that inadequate state funding and limited local financial resources left them with little alternative to meet the county’s criminal justice needs. Duffy emphasized that the inmate population in the county’s six jails Tuesday was 201% of their official capacity, a situation that has been the norm for the past two years.

“This is not the best way to finance criminal justice facilities,” Supervisor Susan Golding said of the proposed tax increase. “Unfortunately, today, it seems to be the only way.”

The supervisors’ discussion Tuesday focused not on the merits or the need for the special tax, but on the timing of the election and the tax’s duration.

April Election Studied

Supervisors George Bailey and Brian Bilbray preferred a special April election, siding with Ed Meyer, a former county grand jury member and chairman of the Stop Crime Committee. Meyer told the board that supporters of the half-cent hike would “have a better chance of getting our message to the voters if we don’t have to compete for attention” with other candidate races and propositions on the June ballot.

Golding, however, disputed that theory, contending that the public and news media would be more likely to pay close attention to the sales-tax proposal during a normally scheduled election--when voters are “more accustomed to thinking” about politics, she said--than during a special race.

“Special elections are difficult,” Golding said. “They’re difficult to inform voters, they’re difficult to get the message out and they’re costly.”

With Bilbray urging his colleagues to “move forward as a united front,” he and Bailey ultimately supported the June timetable to give the measure unanimous support.

But the supervisors found it more difficult to agree on how long the proposed tax hike should be in effect, a question that split the board along lines stemming from short-term strategic and long-term economic concerns.

County administrators had recommended that the increase be maintained for 10 years, a period during which officials estimate that the added tax would generate about $1.6 billion for new jails and courts. Under county planners’ projections, $800 million will be needed over the next decade to build new jails and courtrooms, plus operating costs of $270 million.

Palatable Option Sought

Hoping to make the proposal more politically palatable to voters, Bailey initially favored limiting the half-cent increase to only eight years but said he would not object to the 10-year duration. Golding, meanwhile, suggested that the tax increase have only a five-year life, arguing that “10 years is a long time (and) the public wants to know that taxes . . . have a reasonable end point.”

In contrast, Supervisor Leon Williams called for an indeterminate length for the tax increase, expressing concerns that even after the 10-year period, the county may find itself saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual operating costs for facilities built with the added tax revenue.

Neither Golding’s nor Williams’ ideas drew any support from their colleagues, and both ultimately voted against the 10-year period. However, again for the sake of public appearances, the supervisors then took another vote that drew unanimous support.

Under state legislation approved last year, only a simply majority vote will be needed to pass the tax increase. In November, 1986, a proposed five-year, half-cent sales tax for jails and courts that supervisors put on the ballot failed when it received 51% of the vote, far short of the then-required two-thirds majority.