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The Cincinnati Beacon
Todd Portune v. No Jail Tax PAC
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Guest article by Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune.
The Beacon article quoting Suhith Wickrema’s statements that we do not need to house federal prisoners and which then forms the basis to launch other attacks against the Hamilton County Comprehensive Public Safety Plan offers a multitude of inaccurate or incomplete assertions in the ongoing effort to defeat the plan at the polls. As a consequence, people like Dan La Botz react without full knowledge, or worse yet, La Botz has willfully chosen to join in. Either way a full recitation of the facts and the reasoning is needed for the voter to make an informed decision.
I will do so here in the hope of soliciting independent reader opinion - not the rhetoric from people like COAST advocate Mark Miller who attempts to sound like a supporter of social causes in his contribution when in reality I have never witnessed Miller speaking in favor of more social programs or spending.
The Federal Prisoner Debate:
The proposal to end Hamilton County’s housing of federal prisoners has been decided in the negative only through the end of the year. The issue was first presented as a question of legality, of need and of finance. The simple argument of a $6.00 differential between spending on jail cells in Butler County versus revenue from federal authorities, coupled with overcrowding in the Hamilton County jail facilities at first sounds compelling. It is fair to say that all three commissioners were initially favorable to the concept. Instead of letting our emotions decide the question we asked for the facts. The facts present the following:
1. Through the end of this year we will not save any money if we end the contract. The reason for this is simple. Under the contract that Pat DeWine and Phil Heimlich brought to the county with Butler County we are required to pay for a minimum number of beds whether we use them or not. Butler county was unwilling to renegotiate that provision when we extended the contract through the end of this year. That means that during those frequent times when we are not using all 300 spaces in Butler County that we are required to pay for we will lose money if we do not fill the additional beds with paying customers from the federal authorities. The County Administrator said we will save no money through the end of the year. Period. So, if we save no money should we still do terminate the contract with federal authorities?
2. Pat DeWine argues yes notwithstanding the loss of revenue we would suffer. He has felt it is an illegal contract. We addressed that by ratifying the contract and prior actions. It made sense to do so given that the relationship we have developed of cooperating law enforcement agencies has served us well. The FBI Agent-in-Charge for Cincinnati testified that the relationship and accessibility of access to jail beds in Hamilton County has an impact on where he assigns his Agents. The benefits of such a cooperative relationship cannot be overstated. This leads me to the next reason for continuing the relationship through the end of the year.
3. In those times when we cannot house every inmate in Butler County the Sheriff testified that the only prisoners not housed are non-violent, low level female offenders. These are, first of all, the kind of offender that many people would probably argue should not be in jail anyway. Notwithstanding that argument though the tradeoff would be not housing a federal prisoner so a female bad check writer [for example] could be jailed. Who are these federal prisoners? They are, according to the FBI, the “really bad people”. These are the kidnappers, and bank robbers, and semi automatic gun users who are either from here or who committed crimes here. Just today two of them are in our jail because they robbed a bank in Evendale and were caught on I-71. Pat and Suhith and others would prefer we not house them. From a public safety standpoint I believe that we are better served and public safety is better enhanced by housing those kinds of inmates rather than our low level female drug users, and check passers and the like.
Regardless, we only extended the contract through the end of the year because that is the time frame that, for now, there is no financial benefit. We’ll revisit the issue during our budget process later this year, after the vote, when we have a handle on what next year will look like.
The Social Causes vs. Jail debate:
As for the arguments that we are somehow sacrificing investments in education, or for senior citizens or for those who present issues of mental illness, the comments by Miller and La Botz and others are absurd. David Pepper and I have taken historic steps to advance all of those causes this year and we tried to avoid a November election on the public safety issue in order to benefit those causes even further.
At the beginning of the year, over DeWine and COAST’s objection, we re-tooled the county Tax Levy Review Commission to make it operate in a fashion that will better ensure that the public’s needs are met. We replaced several DeWine appointees with a diverse slate of African American and Women Members who have the diversity of thought necessary to ensure fair deliberations. We repealed a DeWine provision that required levy requests to be shaped only by tax policy and not by need.
Specifically, the old policy required levy requests to come in at levels that would guarantee that Hamilton County is a low property tax county in Ohio. We felt that the TLRC must evaluate community needs as welland wrote that into their charge. The result of our efforts has produced two levy requests for Mental Health and Drug & Alcohol treatment [The Mental Health and Recovery Services Levy] and for In Home Health care, Meals on Wheels and other senior services that allow our seniors to remain in their homes and live independently longer [The Senior Services Levy] that meet community need and also that have come in under the rate of inflation. Our efforts are producing $187 Million for Mental Health and Recovery Services over five years and another $105 Million for Senior Services over five years. These levies and the dollars they generate will greatly amplify the services available in the county for these needs and the populations that require those services. That is if both levies pass.
We understand well the issue of voter fatigue and that is why we wanted to avoid a November election. We tried to send the issue to the voters in August, but after DeWine and others objected to a $1.5 million cost the legislature backed down and would not grant us permission. The delay in voting until November, or later, will result in an incremental $12.5 Million cost of construction and an overall loss of $36 Million to the plan. No matter to DeWine & Co. who objected so strongly to a $1.5 Million cost. Moreover, the Safety Plan is now on the ballot potentially jeopardizing the two levies that I spoke about.
In the area of education La Botz and others ignore the capital money the county is providing to Cincinnati Public Schools that will grow to $10 Million a year within five years. They ignore the $10 Million a year we provide in school based services to county and city school districts through the county Family and Children First Council, of which I am President. They have overlooked the historic joint Board Meeting I initiated this year with the CPS Board that will generate joint prioritization of effort to boost children’s educational performance. They ignore the $1 Million Medicaid outreach and enrollment initiative that I proposed and that is being implemented to make certain that no qualified man, woman or child in Hamilton County goes without available heralth insurance and which will give meaning to Governor Strickland’s increase in child medicaid eligibility, resulting in every child in Hamilton County having some form of health insurance because they will be enrolled. And they overlook our historic initiative to make contact with every High School dropout in Hamilton County in an effort to lead to re-enrollment and pursuit of a high school diploma or degree by also working with these 15-22 year olds in attacking all of the impediments they face to accomplishing that goal.
I won’t go into the details of all of the other efforts and initiatives under our watch, such as: - the summit that is occurring this October 15 to target the high infant mortality rate in the county; or the significant changes being developed to the county’s small business, job and workforce development policy; or our disability review policy for all county buildings; or the environmental policy initiatives including the pledge to reduce global warming emissions from county facilities; etc. - all initiated in the first eight months of our lead.
I will though remind Miller & company that the high tax burden he complains of in the county arose not because of us, but under Republican control and watch. I will remind him of my almost single handed fight to reform the terrible deal Bob Bedinghaus and the Republicans made with the Bengals and their fiscal lapses in construction oversight that have contributed to the high tax rates and financial problems he complains of. This was a fight that COAST could have asisted in but stayed strangely and quietly on the sideline on. I will remind him that I voted for all of the tax reform legislation in place at the county. And I will remind him as well that our reserve fund is depleted because of the deals that DeWine and Heimlich brought us on Butler County and as a result of judgments and settlements on legal matters that arose out of Republican misdeeds in a number of county offices - matters that we inherited and had to responsibly resolve. The combined effect of these matters leaves us without financial flexibility to approach our safety issues in any other way than by raising a new revenue source. Despite our reluctance to do so the cost of this for an average county spender will be less than a dime a day for eight years and less than a nickel a day for the remaining seven.
Whether we are able to implement the Safety Plan is in the hands of the voters now. I believe it is the right thing to do and represents a balanced responsible approach to the county’s needs while also preserving the county’s ability to move ahead as a full service urban county in the 21st century that must be a leader on multiple fronts. Others disagree. They would either have us cut virtually all areas of operation and break promises we have made to others, or sever relationships we have with others on the premise that they are not mandated by law for us to do. Maybe not, but we will have a difficult if not impossible task of growing out of our problems by standing alone.
Others still have argued against building a jail that virtually everyone knows we will need at one point soon on the premise that a multitude of other problems have not been solved first. I understand the sentiment, but in reality it is an argument that results in nothing getting done. We are trying a balanced approach that advances all of the elements requiring work. Pitting one against another is the recipe for failure.
Last, many have said “we need a better plan”. I don’t know what that is. Those who assert that have had years to offer solutions that work and that address all of the considerations that we must address but they have failed to come forward with a real solution. I have encouraged people to do so yet they have not. When I have met with leadership of the opposition it is clear that they have failed to understand even elemental aspects of the problem or the magnitude of issues that must be addressed. I don’t say that critically of them personally, but I do say it critically of what they are offering. They are offering people a false hope that there is a better way. There is not from my perspective. If this is defeated a jail will be built in some fashion but it will not have the reform elements that we need to truly make a dent in crime and to quit warehousing inmates because we will not have the revenues to do so. And the building of the jail then will come at a steep price to what we do in other areas of the county.
I ask everyone to make an informed decision. Go to the county’s website and read all of the reports and then make your own decision.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Todd Portune
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