BENTONVILLE -- The Benton County Quorum Court on Thursday night held the first readings on ordinances needed for a jail expansion.
Justices of the peace previously set a one-eighth-cent sales tax increase to pay for the bond for the expansion and a one-quarter-cent sales tax increase to pay for the operations and management of the jail.
A county criminal justice committee recommended earlier this year that nearly $250 million be spent on a jail expansion and a courts complex. The committee requested the tax increases be placed on the November ballot.
Justice of the Peace Carrie Perrien Smith said at the meeting she believes the one-quarter-cent tax was too large with the state of the economy. She wanted the tax reduced to an one-eighth-cent increase. Justice of the Peace Richard McKeehan agreed with her.
Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said the one-eighth-cent sales tax increase will not be enough and the court should not make a mistake by underfunding the project and then being in a position of not being able to pay for the operations of the jail.
Allen said he believes expanding the jail is an investment in the community.
The justices of the peace voted 14-1 to levy the one-fourth-cent tax increase.
They then voted 14-1 to put the one-fourth-cent and one-eighth-cent tax increases on the ballot.
Justice of the Peace Joseph Bollinger was the lone vote against each of the items.
Smith and McKeehan supported the measures.
Money from the one-eighth-cent increase would be used to pay off the bonds that would finance the jail expansion. The tax will end when the bonds are paid off.
The one-fourth-cent increase, which would pay for operations of the jail, would be a permanent tax.
The ballot measures will only concern expanding the jail because justices of the peace plan to pay for the courts project with existing county money. The estimated budget for the jail is $206.2 million.
Sheriff Shawn Holloway previously told justices of the peace the jail's average weekly population has been over the maximum allowed by jail standards since Sept. 21. The jail averages 713 detainees, with a maximum capacity of 669, he said.
The main jail that opened in 1997 is 132,151 square feet. The building that holds female prisoners is 15,675 square feet and opened in 2012, said Bryan Beeson, county facilities administrator.
Benton County was up to 284,333 residents in 2020 compared to 221,339 in 2010, a 28% increase. The number living in unincorporated areas of the county rose from 42,483 to 44,795, according to the U.S. census.
In March 2019, Benton County voters soundly rejected (62% against to 32% for) a sales tax increase to pay for a new courts building and renovations to the current one.
The one-eighth percent sales tax increase would have paid for a $30 million courthouse. The tax will would have been for 54 months. The new courthouse would have been built on Northeast Second Street in downtown Bentonville.
The county proposed spending another $5 million to update the downtown courthouse, including the courtroom on the third floor. The courthouse was built in 1928.
Since then, the county built a $3.1 million project that opened this year and added 5,500 square feet to the 28,000-square-foot courthouse to provide a new courtroom for Christine Horwart, who became the county's seventh circuit court judge in January 2021. The county financed the project.
Sara Minion and Monica Smith with the Vera Institute of Justice gave a presentation at the June 21 Committee of Whole meeting. The organization's mission is to end the over-criminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants and people experiencing poverty.
Jon Comstock of Rogers urged the justices of peace to do an in-depth study of the criminal justice system in the county before spending millions of dollars to expand the jail.
County Judge Barry Moehring previously said justices of the peace will have to approve the ballot language by Aug. 30 to get the issue on the ballot for the November election. The justices of the peace will have to approve readings of the ordinances at Quorum Court meetings in July and August.
The two tax increases will be on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election if the justices approve the increases at the next two meetings.