TIPTON – The Tipton County Council voted unanimously on second reading Tuesday night to enact an adjusted gross income tax of no more than .4 percent to help fund a new jail facility which is expected to be shared by the Tipton City Police and Tipton County Sheriff’s departments.
“This is just a start; the council can only do so much,” County Council president Jim Powell said. “We’re doing what we can do for this project. … We have tried to make this as public as possible in hopes that if there were some negative feelings out there, we would hear them.”
The tax is expected to bring in roughly $1.25 million per year. In addition to paying off the bonds that might be associated with the jail, the funds will also be used to help continue the waterproofing efforts on the courthouse, which was built in 1895. Early estimates, which are very rough, say the new jail could cost around $9 million to $10 million.
The original portion of the county jail was built in 1894, and although a major addition was tacked on to the back of it in 1983, the building is antiquated and lacks the proper space for administrative offices.
Although the enacting of the tax, which will begin showing up on resident’s paystubs in October but won’t actually begin to be collected by county government until Jan. 1, is now approved, there is still no guarantee that a new jail will be built. There are still hurdles to clear.
The Tipton County Board of Commissioners will now take the reins of the project, by engaging a legal counsel and a bound counsel from an accounting firm to get the process moving.
The commissioners will also start to look at construction management companies, architects and design firms to get a feel for what each bidder has to offer.
There have been a handful of prospective sites for the location of a potential new jail, but many wrinkles still have to be ironed out before any tentative plans are revealed.
The Commissioners anticipate a better feel for where the jail might actually go could come in the next 60 days, but at this point, since the ability to pay for the project did not exist until Tuesday night, no discussions or negotiations have been had with landowners to begin gauging interest.