Residents Oppose Using Sales Tax for County Jail

While crime is a major concern for Ventura County residents, there is overwhelming opposition to increasing the sales tax by half a cent to help finance a new county jail, a poll by the Los Angeles Times shows.

If voters had to choose between higher taxes for a new jail or higher taxes for better roads, the poll found that they would be inclined toward putting the money into road and highway improvements to help alleviate traffic congestion.

But the findings of the poll, conducted in telephone interviews with 818 Ventura County residents, suggest that a major effort by county leaders will be necessary to convince residents that any hike in the sales tax in the next two years should be approved.

While 32% of the poll respondents said they favor a sales tax increase for roads and 24% opposed such a proposal, an even larger number said they do not have enough information yet to make a decision on whether there should be a tax increase for road improvements.

When asked if they support a ballot proposition for a sales tax increase to finance road construction in Ventura County, 42% of the respondents said they had not heard enough about the issue to make a decision.

The poll results on the question of extra taxes for roads, insignificant in view of the large number of people not adequately informed about the issue, contrasted dramatically with the strong opposition voiced about a similar proposed hike for a new jail.

When asked about the jail construction proposal, 25% of the poll respondents again said they did not know enough about the issue to voice an opinion. Fifty percent said they oppose a jail tax, however, compared to 22% in favor and 3% unsure.

A third question, asking respondents how they would vote if they had to pick today between the jail and road financing proposals, confirmed the widespread unpopularity of any tax hike tied to jail construction--with only 8% of the respondents picking a jail tax over a road tax.

There was some partisan division on the question of road and highway construction, with 45% of those favoring a road tax describing themselves as liberals. But there was no such division on the jail question, which was opposed equally by liberals and conservatives.

The poll is subject to a sampling error of five percentage points in either direction.

Responding to the results, the latest in a series of polling questions by The Times on major issues confronting Ventura County, county officials said they were not surprised at the opposition to a jail tax.

But they said they are encouraged that there may be sentiment in favor of the road construction proposal.

Chairwoman Madge L. Schaefer of the Board of Supervisors said voters give their politicians a mixed message when they vote against jail funding.

“People tell me their biggest concern is for safety,” she said. “But if you send people to jail and have no jail to put them in, they are back out on the streets. Because it’s a safe community, people say we don’t need the jail, but by golly, I hate being stuck in that traffic jam.”

Ventura County Sheriff John Gillespie said the poll results validate his department’s preliminary findings of public sentiment against a new tax to build a jail here.

“People just don’t want to tax themselves for anything,” Gillespie said. “Unless people understand that inmate capacity in jails directly relates to the number of bad guys breaking into homes and stealing TV sets, I don’t think we will ever pass a sales tax.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who in April proposed an alternate plan to expand both the County Jail at the government center in Ventura, the work camp at Rose Valley and possibly the East Valley station, said the public wants its government to work within the budget it has.

“What the people told us with this poll is what I have been saying and trying to do with my plan, and that’s that we have to do the best we can with what we have,” Flynn said. “They don’t want us to go out and grab 100 acres to build a jail.”

Arthur Goulet, director of public works for Ventura County, was encouraged about the poll results showing people are more likely to vote in favor of a tax to improve roads.

“The poll tells me that people are very conscious about the traffic problems that exist or are about to develop,” regardless of whether they know anything about the sales tax program, he said.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission has begun holding public workshops throughout the county to seek residents’ opinions on traffic problems to explain how a sales tax program would work, Goulet said.

The poll’s release today coincided with the first of 14 public workshops the commission plans over the next several months, Goulet noted.

The Board of Supervisors has not yet decided whether to place either measure on a public ballot. The transportation measure, which would raise $500 million to help fix state highways and county roads throughout Ventura County, may still make the November ballot, officials say.

The jail measure is no longer being considered for the November ballot after a Sacramento judge’s ruling last week. The county judge ruled against the legislation that would allow a sort of jail commission that would collect and spend taxes in Ventura County and five other counties around the state.

The judge found that a simple majority vote to raise taxes violates provisions of Proposition 13.

County Counsel James L. McBride said that if counties appeal the ruling as expected, the case would take a year to work its way through the court. He believes the legislation is constitutional because it would separate the Jail Commission from the Board of Supervisors, he said.

The legislation that establishes a Transportation Commission, however, is not affected by the ruling on the jail commissions, McBride said.

Sheriff Gillespie, however, said that unless public sentiment changes substantially between now and next year, he would advise the board against placing a jail tax measure on the ballot.

“Jails are just not the most popular things in the world,” he said.

Gillespie said the county already has $41 million toward the estimated $70-million cost of building a facility with nearly 800 beds. If no new money is available, Gillespie said, the county will likely build a jail with half that many beds.

“We can meet our current needs with our current money, but unfortunately, by the time the jail is built, our needs will be significantly more than that.”