-Illustration courtesy of the Samuels Group
The design for the proposed new jail is for a 60,692-square-foot facility that would house both the jail and the Sheriff’s Office. The jail would have 61 general population cells double bunked and eight special needs cells with one bunk, totaling 130 beds.

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of articles that examines the different aspects of the proposed new Webster County Jail and the $45.5 million bond referendum that will be on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Upon learning about plans for Webster County to embark on a $45.5 million project to build a new county jail, most taxpayers, understandably, have one question right away — “How much is this going to cost me?”

On Tuesday’s ballot, Webster County voters will see a question asking if the county should use a general obligation bond to pay for the proposed project, meaning a new debt service levy would be added to the county’s property tax rates to pay for the bond over a period of 20 years.

The Samuels Group, the West Des Moines-based firm contracted by the county for the jail study and marketing of the proposal, set up a website — www.webstercountyvote.com — where property owners can input their property’s parcel number and find out roughly what it would cost them. The website calculates the estimated monthly tax impact, as well as the estimated annual tax impact.

The final levy rate has not been determined, but it is expected to be roughly $1.20 per $1,000 in taxable value.

In Iowa, properties have two values that are calculated — the assessed value and the taxable value. The taxable value is calculated with the “rollback” percentage that is determined each year by the state of Iowa. For example, in 2021, the state’s rollback rate for residential properties was 54.6501 percent, meaning only that percentage of the residential property’s assessed value is taxable. Properties are not taxed at their full assessed value.

For the purposes of this project, the 2022 taxable values were used to determine the property tax impact, Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener has said. The annual tax impact will also remain the same for each property through the duration of the 20-year bond, even if the property’s value increases or if the state’s rollback decreases.

In September, when the Webster County Vote website was launched, The Messenger used publicly available parcel numbers found on the Webster County Assessor’s website and used the calculator to determine those properties’ estimated tax impact for the $45.5 million bond issue.

A residential property in the Oleson Park neighborhood with an assessed valuation of $54,280 and a taxable valuation of $29,664 would see an annual property tax impact of $35.60 for the jail bond referendum, according to the website. That comes out to about $2.97 per month.

A residential property near Feelhaver Elementary School with an assessed valuation of $353,790 and a taxable valuation of $193,346 would see an annual impact of $232.02, or $19.33 per month, according to the website.

A commercial property along Fifth Avenue South with an assessed valuation of $443,460 and a taxable valuation of $346,089 would have an annual impact of $415.31, or $34.61 per month.

An agricultural property of about 40 acres near Harcourt with an assessed valuation of $50,840 and a taxable valuation of $46,591 would see an annual tax impact of $55.92, or $4.66 per month.

Whether Tuesday’s referendum passes or not, the Webster County taxpayers will be footing the bill for the overcrowded jail.

Part of the need for a new jail that was determined by a study conducted by The Samuels Group is that the existing jail on the third floor of the Law Enforcement Center lacks adequate space to house all of the inmates the county has in custody. On Thursday, Fleener said, the county had 12 inmates that were being housed in other county jails because there isn’t enough space in Webster County.

Over the last five years, Webster County has spent $1.4 million on housing and transportation costs to outsource inmates to other jails. In Fleener’s current budget for the Sheriff’s Office and jail, he has about $350,000 for outsourcing. For next year’s budget, he expects to increase that number to $400,000.

For a couple of years, federal American Rescue Plan Act funds were able to be used to help offset that cost, but there aren’t any more ARPA funds to use, Fleener said. Now, that money comes right out of the county’s general fund.

As its name implies, the county’s general fund is the property tax dollars that are budgeted and allocated to the county departments to pay for different services and resources the county provides residents.

At a public informational meeting on Thursday, Webster County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Niki Conrad noted that if the county has to budget more money for outsourcing jail inmates, that takes away from money that could be budgeted for other county departments. If the jail’s budget needs $400,000 for outsourcing in next year’s budget, the Board of Supervisors and the county department heads have to look through the other department budgets to see where they need to cut in order to come up with that $400,000.

“So what does that mean?” Conrad asked. “It means maybe we don’t have as much gravel on the roads. Maybe we don’t buy trucks that we desperately need for our engineering department. Maybe it’s cutting staff.”

Conrad also added that the Board of Supervisors could also increase the county’s property tax levy to generate more revenue, but the state caps the county’s ability to increase tax rates to just 3 percent per year.

“So anybody who’s bought anything recently or had to have anything fixed, labor hasn’t gone up 3 percent — it’s gone up a lot more,” she said. “On the supply side, it hasn’t gone up 3 percent — it’s gone up a lot more.”

Fleener has also noted that the tax impact of constructing a new jail facility has an expiration date — the project would be funded by a 20-year bond. But if the bond referendum fails, the tax impact of having to house inmates in other counties, as well as maintenance and repairs on an aging building, does not have an end date.

The design for the proposed new jail is for a 60,692-square-foot facility that would house both the jail and the Sheriff’s Office. The jail would have 61 general population cells double bunked and eight special needs cells with one bunk, totaling 130 beds. The facility would also include space for jail administration, Sheriff’s Office administration, patrol, investigations and civil processing.

History has shown that the cost of a new jail facility will only increase as time goes on. The county has drawn up plans and estimates for a new jail project two other times — once in 2001 and once in 2007.

In 2001, the jail study found that an 82-bed facility would cost about $6.7 million. In 2007, the cost for the same size facility more than doubled to $18.7 million.

The final public informational meeting on the bond issue was held Thursday night. Webster County residents will have one more opportunity to tour the existing jail on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m.