Jail Tax

In a move that could break a stubborn political logjam, all five county supervisors indicated Friday that they will vote next week to create a special commission that would propose a half-cent sales tax to build a new jail. The vote would start the clock on efforts to put the issue on the May 14 ballot. "There is an imperative need to ask the question of the voters whether or not they want to pay more for a jail facility," Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, citing new poll findings, urged the Board of Supervisors on Monday to schedule a special election for May 14 so that voters can decide whether to raise their sales taxes to pay for new jails. "Your honorable board has the golden opportunity to allow our citizens to decide whether or not their safety is worth a half cent," Gates said in a letter to the supervisors. "Public safety is at risk, and the fate of our families lies in your hands."

Prolonging the measure's legal limbo, the California Supreme Court voted late Thursday to review the validity of Proposition A, the half-cent sales tax that San Diego County voters approved more than two years ago to build new jails and courts. The court's decision immediately sets aside an opinion issued two months ago by a lower appellate court that had unanimously approved the tax.

In Los Angeles County, being sentenced to 30 days in County Jail means serving 11. That, says Sheriff Sherman Block, is why he is seeking voter approval Nov. 6 of Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax increase to fund construction and operation of new jails and juvenile halls. The measure is designed to relieve the jail overcrowding that has forced the early release since mid-1988 of 325,644 people accused or convicted of misdemeanors.

Orange County will join an appeal of a Sacramento judge's ruling that found the county's plan to raise the sales tax one-half cent to pay for new jails unconstitutional, County Counsel Adrian Kuyper said Tuesday. Orange County and five other counties had hoped to place on the ballot separate half-cent sales tax measures requiring simple majority approval.

While crime is a major concern for Ventura County residents, there is overwhelming opposition to increasing the sales tax by half a cent to help finance a new county jail, a poll by the Los Angeles Times shows. If voters had to choose between higher taxes for a new jail or higher taxes for better roads, the poll found that they would be inclined toward putting the money into road and highway improvements to help alleviate traffic congestion.

Delivering a devastating blow to Orange County's plan to build a new jail, a Sacramento County judge ruled Monday that a half-cent sales tax measure planned to help finance new criminal justice facilities is unconstitutional. The Orange County Board of Supervisors had planned to put the measure on the June ballot in hopes of using much of the estimated $126 million that it would generate to pay for a new jail in Gypsum Canyon east of Yorba Linda.

In a move that could derail Orange County's plans to build a new jail, opponents of a proposed half-cent sales tax increase to help pay for the new facility filed a lawsuit Monday, arguing that the tax is unconstitutional. Last month, the state Legislature passed a bill enabling Orange County and five other counties--Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and Humboldt--to place half-cent sales tax measures for jails and courtrooms before their respective electorates.

Gov. George Deukmejian on Monday gave back-handed approval to a measure that will allow Orange County residents to vote on a proposed half-cent sales tax increase to help raise $126 million a year for much needed courtrooms and a new county jail. The Orange County measure is part of a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Dan Hauser (D-Arcata) that also authorizes half-cent sales tax votes in five other financially strapped counties, including Los Angeles and Riverside.

Orange County supporters of a sales tax increase to build a new county jail managed only a half-smile Saturday after news that the Legislature narrowly cleared a bill allowing the question to be placed on the ballot. That, they said, was the easy part.