Official Urges Using Funds From Sales Tax on Jail : Finance: Auditor-Controller wants Prop. 172 money to help operate the facility being built near Santa Paula. Others say more deputies should be hired.

Ventura County officials are considering using money from Proposition 172, the recently passed half-cent sales tax initiative, to help offset the operating costs of the new county jail when it opens in 1995.

Although taxpayer advocates have urged county leaders to hire more sheriff’s deputies with the tax dollars, Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon has recommended that the supervisors set aside some of the revenue for the jail--now under construction near Santa Paula.

“It will take $12 million to operate the jail the first year,” Mahon said Thursday. “I said, ‘Isn’t this wonderful, now we have that money.’ But the supervisors will have to make the determination.”

The board is expected to decide within the next few weeks on how to spend the tax dollars.

In November, voters statewide agreed to make permanent a temporary half-cent sales tax increase, with the stipulation that the money be used for public safety.

About $12 million in revenue is expected to be raised in Ventura County between January and July next year. Overall, the county could receive between $26 million and $28 million in tax revenue annually for law enforcement.

“The jail certainly has to do with public safety,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said. “It’s an appropriate use of the funds.”

But Michael Saliba, the executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn., said the money should be used only to hire more sheriff’s deputies.

“Every penny should be spent on public safety units,” Saliba said. “The taxpayers have given Ventura County $26 million more than they would have received. The taxpayers deserve some increase in public safety.”

Ventura County Sheriff Larry Carpenter said that while it is important to properly fund the new jail, taxpayers expect the supervisors to spend at least a portion of the sales tax revenue on increasing his 625-deputy force.

“I understand fully that it is necessary to get the jail open,” said Carpenter, whose department will be responsible for running the lockup on Todd Road. “But the jail idea came along and was approved long before Proposition 172 was a gleam in anyone’s eye. . . .

“I think there is an expectation from the public that at least a portion of that money be used to fund and increase the field-level deputies.”

But Mahon said using the tax money for the jail would alleviate serious concerns over how to pay for operating costs.

Although the supervisors voted several years ago to begin work on the $53-million project after receiving state construction bond money, the downturn in the economy raised concerns that there would not be enough money to open the doors.

“All we are saying is that we have a problem hanging out there,” Mahon said. “It looks to me like now we have enough money to handle the situation.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said the board will hold workshops to study all its options before deciding how to spend the tax revenue.

“What I would like to do within the next few weeks is lay out what all the possibilities are,” Kildee said. “The board has clearly commented over and over again the money would be used for public safety. . . .

“I think (the jail) is a fair use of it. But I’m not sure that all of it ought to go there. We have to sit down and look at it.”