If citizens come forward and complain about the Monroe County Council ’s proposed income tax increase for a new jail, elected officials will be listening.
The promise came during a Tuesday night meeting where the council voted 6-1 to advertise a possible .2% correctional tax , also called a jail tax, that would take effect Jan.1. The tax is an income tax paid by people who live in Monroe County, regardless of where they are employed.
The current rate is .01%. If the rate is increased to .2%, the maximum allowed by law, someone making $50,000 a year would see their tax increase from $5 to $100.
Kate Wilz was the sole county council member to vote against advertising the highest rate. One reason the council did so was because the advertised rate can be reduced, but not increased.
Changes such as this must be advertised in the local newspaper in what’s called a legal ad so taxpayers are informed.
“I have a lot of feelings on this, the impact this has on those in our community … we have a lot of people struggling to make ends meet,” Wilz said. She said the possibility of approving the highest rate ”hurts my heart.”
Wilz said the tax needs to reflect what the community wants. “I would be more comfortable if we were able to do lower that the .2%,” she said of the possible 20-fold increase.
Other council members, including Marty Hawk, Cheryl Munson and Jennifer Crossley, said they want to hear from taxpayers during a Sept. 16 public hearing on the proposed tax hike and how much it should be.
They cited unanswered questions — how big the jail will be and where it will be constructed — as obstacles to deciding how to set the tax rate.
“I am taking everything into consideration and I’m not very much comfortable with the tax increase because I don’t have all the answers,” Crossley said. “Hopefully I will have enough to make a decision in the next few weeks.”
“I want to hear formally from the public. That’s very important to all of us,” Munson said, adding that imposing the tax “is something that has to be done so we can move on with the other decisions we have to make.”
The council also voted to advertise lowering a tax that pays for juvenile justice and shifting the cash to a fund supporting ongoing jail costs. That would free up the .01% jail tax already in place, putting that money toward the new jail project.
The juvenile justice fund has excess money, the council pointed out, and the tax rate can be increased when the surplus gets too low.
Crossley and Hawk said they want to hear more about the possibility of a work release center — maybe in the Justice Building — that could help incarcerated people reintegrate into society while lowering the number of people held in jail.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Monroe County will advertise highest possible income tax rate for jail
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