Does it make sense to bind Herkimer County property taxpayers with $2 million of perpetual debt? Is it wise to allow Webb homeowners to pay almost 39% of that bill forever? I don’t think so but that’s what the Citizens for a Better Herkimer County want. They’re an organization based in Herkimer and chaired by Joe Chilleli, a one-term legislator who lost in his re-election bid. Mr. Chilleli and his group, want the sheriff to board out all county prisoners at the expense of Webb and the rest of the property taxpaying citizens of Herkimer County, instead of building a new correctional facility that would actually save property taxpayers money

DO WE BUILD A NEW JAIL OR DON’T WE

The discussion has been going on for the twelve years I have been in office and I am told for a few years before that. Although the New York State Commission of Correction (NYSCOC) has worked with the county for many years in anticipation that the county legislators will approve the construction of a new jail, they finally formally told us in the last few months that we better decide on construction, or the present correctional facility was going to be closed, and could only be used as a temporary holding facility. Having to board out all the prisoners because of the NYSCOC’s order, would cost about $2 million per year, paid for by the property taxpayers. It costs about $950,000 now per year since only about half of the prisoners need to be relocated because of the lack of room in the county facility.

OUR VISION

We’ve listened to those for and against a new jail for many years. The bottom line is that our property owning constituents are tired of paying the county’s bills based on the value of their land and home. Not wanting to burden our homeowners with anymore taxes, the Ways and Means committee, which I chair, sponsored a resolution a few years ago, to collect an additional .25% in sales tax revenue to help defray the costs of building a new correctional area. The people utilizing the jail aren’t all citizens of the county, and they aren’t all homeowners. Most legislators, in a 14-2 vote, felt that the fairest thing to do was to collect money from everyone, visitor and resident alike, and not put the onus strictly on the property taxpayer. Through 2012, approximately $7.2 million will have been collected through the special sales tax, and it’s anticipated, based on experience, that $1.5 million per year will be raised thereafter.

BONDING & DOWN PAYMENT

With a 14-3 vote, county legislators approved a bond of “up to” $19.75 million to be used for jail construction. The initial drawings called for a $34.5 million facility.

With about $5.5 million of tobacco money, which the county can use only for capital construction projects, and the sales tax revenues, only to be used for jail construction, the county has almost $13 million in funds to put down as a down payment, reducing the bonding costs for the project. Anticipating the use of about $2.1 in general fund balance money the legislature approved the bonding resolution.

HOW DOES THIS SAVE THE PROPERTY TAXPAYERS MONEY

With the sales tax revenues generating about $1.5 million per year, and the bonding costs of $19.75 million to be about $1.5 million per year over a 20 year period, the sales taxes generated will almost pay the bill. Presently property taxpayers are subsidizing the budget for boarding out cost at about $950,000 per year. Since there would be no more boarding, those costs would be saved. If the NYSCOC closes the jail down, the boarding out bill would be about $2 million. That cost would be saved as well under that scenario. We do believe, additional costs will be incurred with a much larger building, but the savings will still be substantial since the jail now is so inefficient and antiquated. However, not a single legislator wants to spend $35 million and we are working to get the construction costs down to about $30 million. We are also considering a 15 year term for the bond since the interest rate is lower versus a 20 year term. (Mr. Chilleli failed to mention that in his article).

Next column, I will talk about our fund balance, why building on to the present facility won’t work, what we anticipate going into 2012, and how federal prisoners could create revenue for the county. If you have any questions please call me at 315-369-3594. I plan on setting up an “office hours” meeting in Old Forge soon and hopefully will be able to announce that date next time.

Mr. Russell is the Majority Leader of the Herkimer County legislature. He also chairs the Ways and means committee.