SCOTT COUNTY OFFICIALS PITCH SALES TAX FOR NEW COUNTY JAIL

BENTON -- Scott County officials are talking to anyone who will listen about an upcoming ballot issue to fund construction of a new jail.

"If you know of any groups that would like more information, please let us know," County Presiding Commissioner Martin Priggel told a group of north Scott County business people and farmers gathered at the courthouse Friday.

Priggel said he and others promoting a new $4 million jail, to be paid for by a sales tax that will be voted on April 4, have learned from their mistakes five years ago. In 1995, a sales tax for jail construction was defeated 53 to 47 percent.

Priggel is confident the 800-vote margin can be made up this time. In 1995, former circuit judge Tony Heckemeyer had approached the commissioners about building a new jail with a county sales tax. That gave less than four months to prepare before the vote, said Walter Bizzell, county commissioner.

Commissioners have been visiting jails and speaking with architects for the last year, Priggel said, and unlike the 1995 proposal, this half-cent sales tax will only last for eight years.

"If we wanted to continue it after that, we could," Priggel said. "But the people would be in charge."

County officials say a sales tax is better than a property tax increase since it draws money not only from county residents but visitors.

A sales tax also seems more equitable, Priggel said.

"Criminal offenders will pay a sales tax, but probably only in a few cases will property taxes get them," he said.

Instead of waiting eight years for money to be collected, county officials would like to issue bonds so that construction could be completed within the next two years.

The investment banking firm George K. Baum & Co. of Kansas City would issue roughly $4 million in bonds to pay for construction, said Gregory Bricker, the firm's senior vice president.

Bricker attended the meeting in Benton and continued to another gathering in Sikeston with bankers interested in learning about investing in the bonds.

Bricker told the group of 30 in Benton that a conservative growth estimate of 3 percent over eight years would allow the sales tax to pay for the jail.

Sheriff Bill Ferrell said he has bought favors from friends in order to keep costs down at his present facility, the oldest jail in Southeast Missouri.

When the 48-prisoner facility reaches capacity, prisoners are transferred to jails in Chaffee and Butler County, Ferrell said. He has arranged to pay Butler County $25 a day for each prisoner, which is $10 or more below what other jails charge.

This is possible only because Butler County Sheriff Bill Heaton worked with Ferrell's father, the Scott County sheriff said.

If Scott County had to send its prisoners to Mississippi County, which charges $35 a day, costs would go up $33,000 annually, Ferrell said.

Presently, it costs Scott County $17 a day to keep a prisoner in its own jail.

Considering the design of the proposed 120-prisoner jail the county wants to build, the costs of keeping a prisoner would not have to rise, said James Lichty, architect for Archetype Design Group in Leawood, Kan. Lichty presented Archetype's jail design at the meeting in Benton.

Since all cells and doors would be controlled from a central command post with a view throughout the jail, operations could be handled with only two jailers, Lichty said.

The design also allows the 35 square feet of common space and 25 square feet of cell space per prisoner that is required by federal guidelines.

The jail now keeps four prisoners in a 9-by-9-foot cell.

County officials say they have operated under a consent agreement with the federal court since 1979 that permits them to operate a jail outside of guidelines. But that could change at any time, Bizzell said.

Five years ago a federal judge ordered Madison County to build a new jail, Bizzell said, telling county officials that he planned to use them as an example.

"The fear is that a federal judge might step in and tell us what kind of jail to build," Ferrell said. "And they don't care whether the money is provided for or not."