Two Vanderburgh county commissioners presented cost estimates for a jail expansion to the county council at their meeting Wednesday. The council wasn’t impressed.
The commissioners’ draft is based on a 30-year bond and assumes the tax fund will grow 2.8 percent annually.
It leaves county finances in a better state compared to the estimates presented at a stakeholders’ meeting Tuesday. That version was based on a 25-year bond and assumed the tax fund would grow only one percent every year. It would put that fund in the red.
Commissioners were at the council meeting because they asked for a $1 million appropriation for jail design. The money would come from a local income tax fund reserved for public safety expenses.
But some council members are concerned the commissioners’ estimates don’t account for increased costs required to staff a larger jail. They say maybe the county can’t afford it.
The council will vote on the appropriation next month.
