Lincoln County’s administrator testified last week before a state committee favoring a legislative change on jail caps for tax assessment for Lincoln and Sagadahoc Counties.
The proposed act County Administrator John O’Connell spoke about, LD 384, would amend the laws governing the cap and combine the two tax commitments each county pays for Two Bridges Regional Jail’s operation, and allows allocation of them according to the current cost sharing arrangement based on inmate counts from each county.
O’Connell addressed his request for passage of LD 384, which would accomplish the desired aim before the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
The combined total commitment from the two counties would be $5.3 million, which is the combination of Sagadahoc’s commitment of $2.29 million with Lincoln’s $3.01 million at the 2007-08 spending levels.
“Lincoln County understands the financial burden that municipal and county government places on property owners and has lobbied over the years for the counties to be allowed to access other revenue sources including an increase in the counties’ share of property transfer tax.” O’Connell said.
In his testimony, he shared how the current cost sharing agreement came about as the result of several years of consultation with both counties’ boards of commissioners, their sheriffs, legislative delegations, corrections and jail advisory committees, public input, and public forums.
O’Connell told the committee the jail advisory group retained various consultants and based the jail authority structure on the Virginia model which has effectively partnered with county, municipal, and state in their multi-jurisdictional correction facilities. He said the state Dept. of Corrections (DOC) was involved in all stages of planning for Two Bridges and Gov. John Baldacci showed support for the efforts.
“We note that while the tax cap is intended to freeze property tax for corrections at the county or aggregate level, it will not do so at the individual municipal level, since valuations by town do not increase or decrease at the same time,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell took the opportunity during his testimony to voice county concerns about the state’s development of a unified corrections system.
“Lincoln County sees this as a work in progress and has a number of concerns about the present and future shape of corrections in Maine,” he said.
He enumerated some of the concerns, including unresolved issues regarding transportation, medical, and other related items; the DOC, loss of programming, inability to correct inaccurate data, overcrowding in key facilities, inmate welfare and access, employees morale and mandated overtime, budget shortfalls at Two Bridges, ability of the state to pay for expenditures over the cap, and boarding rates.
O’Connell was serving as a county commissioner when the current regional jail was being proposed, having worked with various agencies and consultants, and saw Two Bridges through to completion.
The idea for a joint tax cap was discussed recently at a meeting of both boards of commissioners as an optional measure to deal with the dilemma both counties were facing with the prospect of a serious budget shortfall and possible housing pod closures and resulting staff cutbacks.
