I mentioned to my partner Cynda Green this morning that I sometimes wonder if I’m just like Don Quixote, the confused gentleman featured in the 1604 novel by Miguel de Cervantes, The Ingenious Knight of La Mancha.
Here’s a short excerpt from that book, as translated into English:
Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them…”
“What giants?” asked [his squire] Sancho Panza.
“Those you see over there,” replied his master, “with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length.”
“Take care, sir,” cried Sancho. “Those over there are not giants, but windmills…”
Of course, I could be mistaken. Perhaps it’s not me, but our County government that’s misunderstanding the landscape spread out before them? And maybe it’s the taxpayers who are crying out, “Take care, sir! Those are not giants, but windmills…”
The first half of the 55-minute sales pitch, delivered by County Finance Director Larry Walton to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday morning, was — as I suggested in Part One — aimed mainly at justifying the use of Certificates of Participation (COPs) to build a new 54-bed County Detention Center. The cost to the taxpayers would be about $20.8 million, according to the figures quoted by Mr. Walton. ($830,000 per year X 25 years = $20.8 million).
The first half of Mr. Walton’s presentation focused on the partial history of County finances, with special attention paid to the County sales tax and property tax collections. In quoting his historical data, Mr. Walton was careful not to look at the years prior to 2007. Yesterday in Part One, I shared a couple of charts showing historical sales tax collections — the one Mr. Walton used (and which you view for yourself if you download the Powerpoint presentation, here) and another one that I created myself to show data going back a few years further.
I appreciate the effort, by the County Finance Department, to post Mr. Walton’s Powerpoint slides publicly on the County website yesterday. Unfortunately for the taxpaying public, the information was shared only after the budget had already been approved.
Mr. Walton’s initial presentation focused on two revenue streams: Sales Tax, and Property Tax. Those two streams of income, together, will account for around $11.5 million in the County’s 2019 budget. The total County revenues, meanwhile, are estimated to be about $27.7 million in 2019, as we see in the following chart:
Sales tax and property tax account for much less than half of the total 2019 budget, but they were the focus of Mr. Walton’s lengthy (and informative) presentation for one simple reason.
Most of the revenues collected by the County government arrive already earmarked for specific purposes. Roads. Human Services. Emergency Management. Tourism.
The Sales Tax stream and the Property Tax stream? The BOCC has considerable leeway in how those dollars are spent. They can be spent, for example, on road maintenance. They can just as easily be spent building windmills, if so desired.
Or detention centers.
It was pretty obvious to me why Mr. Walton did not include the years prior to 2007 in the charts he created for his sales pitch. Here, for example, is the picture Mr. Walton wanted us to see regarding Property Tax collections. The red line jumps up significantly from the $6.5 million amount in 2007, and then drops.
And then levels out at around $5.5 million. Doesn’t look all that wonderful.
But luckily, with a little bit of research, we also have access to a similar chart that was included in the official County’s 2011 budget:
The Property Tax collections in 2004 amounted to about $3.6 million, and then took on a giant increase to $6.5 million in 2008, and then to almost $8 million in 2010. More than double. Apparently, the BOCC was comfortable, on Wednesday, displaying a graph that ignored this huge tax increase from 2004 through 2010.
Nevertheless, Mr. Walton made a valid point during his sales presentation. We can’t assume that the County’s revenue streams are constant. They obviously go up and down, as the national economy changes, as property valuations change, and as new businesses — like for example, Walmart — open their doors, and as other businesses close their doors.
The future is uncertain. We can’t clearly see if those are long-armed giants in the distance, or if they are windmills.
Two of our three County Commissioners, meanwhile, obviously see the need for a 54-bed jail, and a taxpayer obligation totaling $20.8 million. Two Republican commissioners — count ‘em, two — are legally able to yoke the taxpayers with this long-term obligation, and steer 25 years of revenues away from other County needs.
Back in 2013, when our existing County jail was still in use, the Sheriff spent about $1 million on detentions. For operating a 34-bed jail.
How much would the taxpayer have to chip in, every year, to operate a 54-bed jail? We have never heard any such estimates from the BOCC and its staff of professionals. Could we assume that a 54-bed jail will cost us more to operate and maintain, per year, than our existing 34-bed detention center was costing us in 2013? Like, maybe half again as much?
Like, maybe $1.5 million per year? And if we added the debt for a new 54-bed jail? Would that then cost the taxpayers close to $2.5 million per year, for incarceration expenses?
A couple of months ago, I ran into an acquaintance at Walmart who has obviously been thinking deeply about our County jail situation. He mentioned the new ‘Public Safety Center’ recently built in Gunnison County. This new 58,000 square foot facility includes a Sheriff’s administration facility as well as a jail, and was built for less than $12 million.
When I checked the inmate roster, the jail housed 16 inmates. (You can download that roster here.) Only four of those 16 inmates were accused of violent crimes.
According to the US Census, Gunnison County’s population is about 16,000 — which indicates that approximately one person per 1,000 residents is currently incarcerated in the Gunnison County jail. Here in Archuleta County, our Sheriff has been jailing an average of maybe 25 inmates per day. That’s about two people per 1,000 residents.
Our ‘per capita’ incarceration rate in Archuleta County appears to be twice the rate of Gunnison County. Does that mean we have twice the amount of crime as Gunnison County? Or does it simply mean that different County Sheriffs have different ideas about which people should be incarcerated, and for what reasons?
We’ve heard repeatedly, from two County Commissioners — Steve Wadley and Ronnie Maez — that Sheriff Rich Valdez is not incarcerating all the people who really ought to be in jail… That we really have far more than 25 criminals each day who ought to be locked up.
With a 54-bed jail, we could lock up four times the number of criminals, per capita, as they seem to have in Gunnison County. With any luck, we could spend even more than $2.5 million per year on incarceration…