Santa Maria Sun / News

Sides take shape in the jail tax debate

BY JEREMY THOMAS

Where three of his predecessors have failed, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown is determined to succeed.

For more than 20 years, officials, judges, and grand juries have deemed the county’s jail capacity inadequate, and Brown is stumping heavily for what would be the largest public works building project in the county’s history: an $80 million jail facility in Santa Maria.

“We’re literally bursting at the seams and have been for many, many years,” Brown said. “You name it, it’s been effort after effort, but we’ve always fallen short of a new revenue stream to provide for the continued operational costs.”

Enter Measure S, a November ballot initiative that would create a half-cent county sales tax over 14 years, in part to fund the jail’s construction and its estimated $17 million annual cost to operate. The project would ease overcrowding at the existing county jail in Santa Barbara, which has gone through seven expansions since being built in 1971.

The lack of space has limited incarcerations to felonies and a handful of serious misdemeanors, and, according to Brown, the problem is getting worse. Since 1999, the county has been forced to release more than 18,000 prisoners before their sentences were up. More than
1,000 of those have re-offended and been
re-incarcerated during the time they would’ve still been serving their sentences.

“The whole system is jeopardized when that starts happening, because you just don’t have the cause and effect or the certainty of consequence for people who are committing crimes,” Brown said. “If people get away with them or feel that there’s no consequence, oftentimes they’ll escalate and start to commit major crimes.”

Brown’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Jail Overcrowding set the standards for Measure S in 2008. The commission concluded the county needed a 300-bed North County jail facility and millions to invest in recidivism reduction programs. The findings were presented to the Board of Supervisors in 2008.

In 2009, the county purchased a 50-acre site to build the jail, near the intersection of Betteravia and Black roads, and received a $56 million grant from the state to go toward construction.

According to Commission Chair Rick Roney, the location makes sense because a majority of the county’s jail population, about 55 percent, is arrested in the North County. The current Santa Maria jail has just 43 beds, serving primarily as a booking facility for local police departments, meaning those arrested in Santa Maria must be transported by bus to and from Santa Barbara.

“When the Santa Barbara County Jail was built, Santa Maria was a very small town,” Roney said. “Now it’s the biggest city in the county, and to not have a facility here is nuts.”

Not having enough room has also hampered anti-recidivism efforts, Roney added, because prisoners aren’t inside long enough to fully experience the programs.

Out of the estimated $30 million in annual tax revenues, $5 million would be earmarked for recidivism reduction programs. The county’s recidivism rate mirrors the state’s: About 70 percent return to jail within three years. Brown said comparable studies show such programs could reduce repeat offenders by up to 35 percent.

While opponents of Measure S don’t dispute the need for a new jail, they are taking umbrage with how it would be paid for.

David Stockdale, a former Republican candidate for Congress, signed a letter authored by the Santa Barbara Republican Central Committee, formally opposing Measure S. Stockdale believes county supervisors and other officials should have been more proactive in planning for local security.

   “They say they’ve known it’s needed to be done for the last 20 or 30 years, but they haven’t been setting aside money for it in order to accomplish it,” Stockdale said. “It’s not right that they make us feel pressured to add additional taxes when it’s their failure to plan that’s caused them to bring this measure forward.”

Stockdale criticized supervisors for spending $17 million on recent capital improvements, like the Betteravia Government Center expansion, instead of putting the money toward a jail. He called it “inappropriate” for the county to fund core functions, like public safety, with a temporary tax.

“We’re already paying enough,” Stockdale said. “What the people need to do with this tax measure is defeat it, soundly, and use that to communicate to the people who are in charge of our local government that business as usual has got to stop.”

Of the anticipated revenue, $10 million would go toward increasing front line police and fire protection, which local governments would receive on a per capita basis. Santa Maria would receive $1.9 million annually, controlled by the City Council and used to put more officers and firefighters on the streets.

The county would also close the current Santa Maria jail and move all operations to the new facility, creating about 150 local jobs, Brown said. Another 150 or so jobs could come from anti-recidivism programs and enhanced public safety.

If passed, the tax would take effect on July 1, 2011, a day after the planned sunset of the state’s one-percent emergency sales tax. Supporters say the net effect would mean a decrease in overall taxes for the average consumer.

Bob Nelson of Voters for Fiscal Responsibility First, a No on Measure S committee, argued there isn’t a guarantee the state tax will terminate, and called the measure’s wording “manipulative. “

While he agreed a North County jail is necessary, Nelson rejected the idea that a sales tax should fund it. With an $800 million county budget, he said, there should be room to come up with the money needed through existing taxpayer dollars.

“The buck has been passed continually here on this jail,” Nelson said. “Now, it’s almost gotten to this critical point, and they’re coming back to the taxpayers and going, ‘We weren’t wise with your money the first time, and we need more of what you’ve got.’ I think that’s inappropriate, and if they dig deep just like a lot of us are doing in our own businesses and families, they can find it, too.”

According to Nelson’s group, if the measure passes and the state’s emergency tax sunsets, Santa Barbara County’s tax level—at 8.25 percent—would move up to the fourth highest in the state, behind Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Francisco counties.

As former president of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, Lanny Ebenstein is accustomed to arguments against higher taxes. Now a consultant to the Yes on Measure S Committee, Ebenstein said an increase in crime has made an additional county facility imperative, even in difficult economic times.

“If we want to maintain public safety in Santa Barbara County, we have to build the new jail,” Ebenstein said. “What they’ve done thus far is implemented the most cost-effective approaches, which was to add capacity to the existing jail. Now they’re at the point where they can’t add any more, so the next step has to be taken.”

According to Ebenstein, Santa Maria would benefit more from Measure S than any other community in the county. Though a two-thirds vote on the measure will be difficult to achieve, he said, it is possible due to a broad coalition of support, including Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino, city councilwoman and 33rd District Assembly candidate Hilda Zacarias, supervisors Joe Centeno and Joni Gray, and Democratic Congresswoman Lois Capps.

Sheriff Brown said he isn’t surprised support for the half-cent tax has crossed party lines. He called the measure “the only chance in the foreseeable future” to get the jail built.

“If we continue to wait, the problem is just going to get worse and worse, and it’s going to get more expensive to try to resolve in the future. In the meantime, a lot more people are going to get victimized,” Brown said. “Measure S
will give us the tools to provide the level of protection and service that will help preserve the unique and wonderful quality of life that we enjoy in Santa Barbara County.”

Contact Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas at jtthomas@santamariasun.com.