Well, here we are. What some elected officials will refer to as an $85 million jail project, and what some news outlets will report as simply an $85 million jail tax, is in reality a $400 million jail tax. If not more.
The Kansas City TV station that your county officials like to reach out to when they want positive spin sure didn’t mention the total $400 million cost to taxpayers, did they? No, they did not. Conveniently left the $400 million tax part out of their reporting. Maybe that was intentional. Or maybe the reporter simply didn’t understand the financial depth of the proposal.
The county’s proposed half cent sales tax that voters will decide the fate of in August would build an $85 million jail and also raise over an additional $320 million for jail operations. And that’s a conservative estimate.
Lol. Wut? Is this for real? Wrap your head around that. Hundreds of millions here, hundreds of millions there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
If approved by voters, in terms of revenue generated it will be the largest tax increase ever by Platte County. And, of all things, for a Prison Palace that seems destined to become a jail hotel.
A half cent sales tax for 20 years that when combined with the accompanying use tax will bring in more than $400 million just to fund a county jail. And frankly, the projected revenue generated from this proposed tax may be understated. I’ve seen projections from some at the county that indicate the real projected income is more likely $420 million to $440 million, but again, when you get above $400 million who’s really counting, right?
And that’s using a three percent growth in sales tax collections per year. That may be understating things. Some at the county will tell you that county general fund sales tax collections have been increasing at a rate of 4.6% per year on average over the past 10 years. If you used a 4.6% year-over-year rate of growth, the amount of jail tax revenue collected over 20 years will be much more than $400 to $440 million.
How much is too much? How long is too long? This is both of those things.
If the $400 million jail tax passes let’s go ahead and anticipate that Platte County will start signing deals to house prisoners from other counties/cities/agencies shortly after the local prison penthouse opens. Guaranteed. They don’t want to build an oversized Prison Palace just to see half of it sit empty, which it would be if it only housed Platte County prisoners.
Even if you believe the county’s projected future count for Platte County inmates–which I believe to be inflated for a variety of reasons that I’ll get into in the coming weeks–the new jail will be half empty when it opens. It is projected Platte County will have 238 prisoners in its jail when the new one is operating in 2028. Even if the Platte County inmate population does grow to what I believe is an inflated projected number, that would mean the county will have about 236 empty jail beds. The place will be half empty. Or half full, whichever your word preference.
County commissioners love to talk about a supposedly growing crime rate in our county. But here are some numbers straight from Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd that I acquired in a recent email conversation with him: Felony prosecutions in Platte County have dropped by 14% from 2021 to 2023. Misdemeanor prosecutions dropped by 36 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. And the average daily population of the jail was 214 in 2022 but fell to 194 in 2023. Those jail numbers are straight from the Committee for Public Safety.
County officials can and no doubt will give us all kinds of speculation as to why prosecutions have dropped to that degree as they get busy trying to sell voters on this $400 million tax, but the numbers are the numbers. The facts are the facts. Those numbers are facts, not speculation. Remember, some things that used to be illegal are now legal. I hate to let facts get in the way of a good sob story, but when it comes to tax issues The Landmark isn’t here to sell you BS. As taxpayers we all can politely listen to their speculation but we don’t have to buy it. Or vote for it.
So when the new jail is up and running full steam ahead, it seems clear Platte County will begin renting space to other agencies and importing somebody else’s problems into Platte County. And if you want to be more specific, into Downtown Platte City. If this thing passes, go ahead and prepare yourselves for that.
Have you received any reaction to the county’s $400 million to $440 million and beyond proposed jail sales tax? Yes, we have, thanks for asking. Here are a few quotes trickling into our newsroom from everyday folks who have reached out to us in the past 24-48 hours.
•“It’s hard to fathom they’re serious about this,” one female Platte County resident told me Tuesday morning.
Oh, they’re serious. And some of these folks are very sensitive to criticism, even when that perceived criticism is intended in a constructive manner. Their reaction to your questioning of their over-the-top proposal may be met with scorn and anger.
•“I recently built a home in Platte City, moved here from Parkville. What I want in Platte City are more festivals and more restaurants, not more prisoners,” another reader told me.
•“The proposed tax is too big and lasts for too long,” were words spoken to us by multiple local residents in the past two days. And I emphasize multiple.
•“Even the Missouri prison system has downsized. The rest of the world isn’t feeding prisoners into their jails. Why is Platte County?”
•“They’re gonna fill that thing with other agencies’ prisoners in the first year.”
And here is my favorite quote, and definitely spot on. This one was spoken to me by a retired federal agent, with whom I always chat when jail issues come up. Cut out this quote and hang it on your fridge for future reference. Read it before you go vote on Aug. 6.
•“It looks like Platte County wants to build a corporate incarceration empire.”
Bingo.
Is a $400 million tax what the county commission’s own Committee for Public Safety had in mind? If this is what they had in mind then that is surprising, because it certainly is not what the committee wrote in its recommendation. The committee said nothing about incorporating a sales tax large enough to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for 20 years of operations of a more than 470-bed jail. In fact, here’s a direct quote from the final two paragraphs of Committee for Public Safety’s recommendation to the county commission:
“The committee recommends that the Platte County Commission authorize a basic construction proposal to build a “stacked” addition to the current jail on the county property on the northwest corner of the county buildings, with 312 new beds in addition to the existing 152 beds for a total of 464 beds in at l east 13 pods built in the same general arrangement as the current cells, day rooms, and security hub. Expansion of service areas, including kitchen, laundry, holding areas and attorney-client meeting rooms to be included.
“The committee further recommends that the (county commission) submit a proposal to the voters of the county to adopt a sales tax to expire in 10 years at either 1/4 of a cent or 3/8 of a cent rates, as the commission chooses.”
(Thoughts on prisons or palaces or Prison Palaces? Email Foley at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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