New jail project on hold TABOR outcome awaited

SKOWHEGAN -- Afraid passage of TABOR would leave them unable to pay for a new jail, commissioners have put the $30 million project on hold until after the November election.

Paul Hatch, chairman of the Somerset County Commissioners, said the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which proposes limits on government spending at the state, municipal and county level, would make it difficult or impossible to pay back debt related to the jail.

"We just think the prudent thing to do is stop right now and not go any further," said Hatch. He said if TABOR passes and is not amended by the Legislature, the chances of building the jail are practically nil.

County voters approved the project last year by only a handful of votes. The cost, in one of the poorest counties in Maine, was a major source of controversy.

While TABOR would allow towns or county governments to override spending limits with voter approval, Hatch said he was not at all certain voters would approve a tax hike for the jail.

Michael Starn, director of communications at the Maine Municipal Association, said commissioners are right to be concerned, but a proponent of TABOR said Wednesday that the county could build the jail if it prioritizes its expenditures.

"If they pay for the debt service on the jail within that limit -- estimated at between 3 and 4 percent for Somerset County -- they won't have to go back to voters again," said Tarren Bragdon, of the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center.

Bragdon said that if voters approved the jail, then they probably consider it a priority and commissioners could find a way to pay for it by cutting or limiting spending for other things.

"None of those plans would be affected by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights as long as the debt service is paid for within the spending limits," said Bragdon.

Starn said, however, that TABOR does create real uncertainty for projects that have already been approved by voters but would have to be paid for under new spending limits.

While commissioners have said that they hope to offset the cost of the new jail by boarding inmates from other counties, jail expenses would still increase significantly when the new, larger facility first opens.

Spikes in expenditures, even if they would eventually result in savings, just don't work under TABOR, Starn said.

"This is a limitation system that I think .... really inhibits any type of restructuring or capital investment in government," Starn said.

Commissioners had hoped to begin earth-moving on the 34-acre site of the new jail this fall. It is not clear if the project is still on schedule to be completed by the end of 2008, as had been planned.

The new facility, which would have room for 173 inmates, would be built on 34 acres in East Madison. It would replace the current overcrowded jail, which is more than 100 years old and fails to meet existing state and federal requirements.

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