Are you a voter? Here’s a helpful reminder that the largest tax increase in the history of the County of Platte–to raise more than $400 million for a jail hotel–will be on your Aug. 6 election ballot. Might want to mark your calendar for that one.
A creative–but allowable–use for COVID relief money.
Platte County is using $328,225 of federal ARPA (America Recovery Plan Act) money to make structural repairs to the Platte County Courthouse to “stop birds, bats, and other critters from getting inside.”
That word came in Tuesday afternoon via a press release from Joe Vanover, second district county commissioner. “The judges and clerks complained about birds and bats getting inside the courthouse. We want our buildings to be professional work spaces,” Vanover says.
The project will involve a contractor removing and replacing rotted wood in the soffits and eaves near the roofline of the historic courthouse, which was built just after the Civil War.
Platte County has received $20 million in federal ARPA money (COVID relief aid) and has been using it to “modernize its facilities and update technology,” Vanover said. Vanover says under federal guidelines, part of the money can be spent on projects that are not directly related to COVID, which I’m guessing is the category that stopping critter entry falls under.
I’m glad Vanover brought up the $20 million in ARPA money that the county has received. I’m also glad that in his news release Vanover correctly explained the county is spending that $20 million “on modernizing its facilities and updating technology.” I’m happy he put out the correct categorization of how the money is being spent and didn’t say the $20 million is being spent “on the courthouse.” Because it isn’t.
Not sure if it’s coming from someone on the county commission but there has been misinformation spread on this topic. Misinformation that keeps getting incorrectly repeated in private conversations and in fact was incorrectly reported on Fox 4 last Thursday night by the county commission’s favorite television news reporter, Kevin Barry. It is being mentioned the county commission is spending $20 million in ARPA money on improvements to the Platte County Courthouse. “$20 million in American Rescue Plan Act money is being used to update and expand the facilities inside the courthouse,” Fox 4 says in its reporting. This is simply not true. More on that in a bit.
Not only did Fox 4 say the county is spending $20 million in ARPA money on the courthouse (which it isn’t), Fox 4 also insinuated that the county constructing a three story expansion of the county jail to nearly 500 inmates would be helpful toward some kind of Downtown Platte City revitalization. Lol. Wow. Someone is really drinking the county commission’s Kool-Aid. I would argue that 470-500 inmates coming in and out of Downtown Platte City will be detrimental to Downtown Platte City, not boost it.
We already know that if this tax passes, the City of Platte City has said it will put off making any major infrastructure improvements to streets, curbs, etc. downtown until the new jail facility is open, which means roughly four years from now.
Don’t miss the letter to the editor in this edition from Gordon Cook, an accountant in Parkville who has studied the financial numbers the county used in its proposed half cent sales tax for a major prison upgrade. It’s important to note that Cook has done some financial work for the county in the past, so for him to go public with some serious questions about the county’s proposal is a big deal. This is the county commission being the recipient of some friendly fire, which makes it even more painful for them. A couple of Cook’s key points include:
•Some of the expenses the county lists in its 20-year plan are expenses that are already being covered with existing taxes. Double taxation at its worst.
•Since the projected expenses include costs covered by current taxes, the proposed half cent rate is not appropriate. In other words, the proposed half cent sales tax is too high.
Remember a few weeks ago when the county announced it wants to expand the Platte County Jail and I quoted a local resident who isn’t happy about it? That resident’s quote was this: “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.”
That home–only two years old with one of the most impressively manicured landscapes you’ll see–is in the same part of town as the county’s proposed three-story 471-inmate jail. I drove by the home Saturday morning. There is a for sale sign in the yard. That for sale sign wasn’t there when the county made its planned Prison Palace announcement.
So much for a jail expansion being a driver of a revitalization, I guess. Seems the nearby homeowner believes quite the opposite.
I recently asked Wes Minder, county administrator, for an accounting of the $20 million in ARPA aid as far as how it is being spent. Minder replied to me with a document that lists a line of item of $3 million in the category of “courthouse.”
$3 million on things in the “courthouse” budget line is a long way from $20 million, folks.
Items included in that $3 million, according to the information provided by Minder, include construction of the new sixth courtroom with room for a jury, expanding the Division IV courtroom, entrance security upgrades and ADA improvements.
The largest expenditure budget line in the $20 million of ARPA money is $4,795,439 in the Platte County Resource Center line. If we wanted to get picky, this line item should be listed as Platte County Sheriff’s Department because, as you know by now, the entire 39,800 square foot resource center structure was renovated with ARPA money to become the home of the sheriff’s department.
Minder says big ticket items at the new sheriff’s department structure were “gutting and reconfiguring most of the eastern two thirds of the building to remove the random offices in there before, an emergency generator, security, and equipment replacement.”
(Don’t double tax him but you can double email Foley at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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