Most Ada voters backed the jail bond, but it needed 2/3 majority to pass. What happened?
Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford said Wednesday marked “a hard morning.”
Whether to raise property taxes to pay for a $49 million bond that in turn would pay for 294 new jail beds was on Ada County voters’ ballots Tuesday. The bond failed narrowly to garner the required two-thirds supermajority, or 66.7% of the vote.
According to final unofficial Ada County election results, 65.8% of voters approved the bond and 34.2% disapproved. The bond failed by less than 1%.
“We knew getting a supermajority for such a large project with a pretty high hurdle,” Clifford said in a 1-minute video on Facebook. “One we knew it would be a challenge to clear. We got close.”
The bond would have increased property taxes by an average of $3.60 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value per year.
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office advocated for the jail expansion, telling the Idaho Statesman previously that it could not keep up with the increase in population.
Update: Treasure Valley election results, latest vote totals for Ada, Canyon County races
Clifford said the jail has space for 949 people, but the Statesman found it had an average of 1,001 residents over the last year.
The Sheriff’s Office uses alternative programs to keep nonviolent, low-level crime offenders out of jail. But Clifford said those programs are no longer able to keep the jail’s population below capacity.
The sheriff said his office supervises about 2,000 people outside of jail, twice as many as are incarcerated. They take part in a mix of programs such as pretrial release, alternative sentencing, the sheriff’s labor detail, and a 108-bed community transition center.
Clifford didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the results Tuesday and Wednesday.
He told the Statesman previously that there was no backup plan if the bond failed.
“We don’t have a big Plan B, because our Plan B for the last 15 years has been the programs that keep our people out of jail,” Clifford said. “And now we’re running out of Plan B.”
Passage of the measure would have allowed the county to expand the jail to include 292 more beds, about a 30% increase. The county’s plan is to build the new jail space across the street from the existing jail, on Allumbaugh Street near the Boise Towne Square mall. It purchased land from Darigold at 618 N. Allumbaugh St. in July to allow for the expansion, the Statesman reported.
The project would have cost an expected $69.9 million, with the county drawing $17.1 million from its construction fund. The county already spent $3.5 million to buy the land for the expansion. The Statesman reported that the $49 million bond would end up costing $71.7 million, including interest that would accrue over the 20-year lifetime of the bond.
Through their spokesperson, Elizabeth Duncan, the Ada County commissioners, who signed off on including the jail bond question on Tuesday’s ballot, declined to comment on the results. But the commissioners on Facebook said 65.8% “means a lot of voters in our community support expanding and updating the Ada County jail to ensure public safety.”
“We look forward to working with the Ada County Sheriff’s Office to ensure that our focus remains the safety of all Ada County residents,” the post said. “The 66.67% threshold was a steep hill to climb, and we are in this for the long haul. This is another indication that every single vote matters.”
This story was updated 2 p.m. Nov. 8 to include additional statements following the election results.
‘She made some tough decisions’: McLean defeats Masterson for mayor. What they say
Incumbents fare well in Boise-area school board elections. So do tax levies
Eagle mayor forced into runoff. Another mayor beaten soundly. What suburban voters did
