Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	8/6/2004

If elected I will... 11:18:15 PM

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Prison Inmate Tax

Much frustration could have been saved at last night's county commissioners� meeting if we were honest and called things what they really are.

In making his case to use $18,191 from the County jail funding source known as the "Inmate Welfare Fund", Sheriff Barnes was unnecessarily put in the awkward position of justifying how a new ID security card system for staff and inmates ($14,391) an office copier ($1000) and public visitation seating ($2800) would all ultimately benefit "inmate welfare." Commissioners in the minority argued in vain that capital expense items such as those described by the Sheriff, though technically allowed per fund rules, were a violation of what they saw as the spirit of the Inmate Welfare Fund; that is to provide upgrades directly to prison inmate living conditions. (This fund is generated through the margins made by the county on selling prison inmates extravagances like soap, pencils, paper and phone calls. It has grown to a substantial sum in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.)

Though the racial and income demographics are not comparable, other "captives" in our county system -- hotel guests and rental car users -- are well acquainted with the difficult to avoid special taxes targeting them. Considering their actual usage, the Inmate Welfare Funds should be called what they really are; a "Prison Inmate Tax." Then, we could have an honest debate as to whether prison inmates and their families should be subject to a special tax to help defray the cost of operating prisons in our county.

9:24:34 PM

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Guilford - The county that never sleeps

But they do get tired after a while as you can tell from this picture.

Comish meeting finished at the pumpkin hour tonight. Way past the time David Hoggard could have hung around to share a nightcap with. Luckily though, for me who skipped dinner, Malika was manning a hot dog stand past midnight out in front of the Speakeasy Tavern on Battleground -- and inside it was half off martinis Thursday (note to self: good timing for County Commissioner's meetings.)

Tonight's stress points:

1) Sheriff Barnes wanted to spend $18,191 from the Inmate Welfare Fund to purchase an ID Card system $14,391, a copier $1000 (actually cheap for a copier) and $2800 for "public visitation seating."

Alston, Davis, Coleman, Thigpen (and mistakenly Shaw) voted yes to deny funding. The mistake by Shaw made it a 5-3 vote in favor of Alston's proposal to deny funding to Sheriff Barnes, with Rakestraw out of the room, Barber temporarily retired to more pressing business, and Landreth absent for the night. This caused a long debate ending in a parliamentary procedure snafu which in the end was resolved by another vote in favor of Mr. Barnes' proposal.

Basic issue was whether the capital expenditures were meeting the spirit of the fund versus what is legally allowed per the Sheriff's attorney. I think they could have saved a lot of trouble if they honestly called this what it really is: "Prisoner tax." Then, we could simply debate the merits of whether it is a fair reimbursement to the taxpayers of Guilford County to have prisoners in a tax supported facility pay inflated prices when they wish to purchase extravagances like, soap, pencils, paper, phone calls, etc.

Like buying a coke at the coliseum these captive market rates have generated a "Inmate Welfare Fund" for the Sheriff's Department in the neighborhood of $1 million dollars. That's a lot of soap or a lot of prisoners. Next meeting, I would suggest just cutting the prices in the prison so that the Fund no longer continues to grow into such a wonderful target of debate.

(note to self 2: Malika, who said she watches all the commissioner meetings on the replays, was of the definite opinion that prisoners and their families were being taken advantage of. The all white mostly 20 and 30 somethings inside the Speakeasy Tavern (District 7) all looked to be too in-tune with 1/2 off martini night and extremely not interested in discussing the results of the county commissioner's meeting.)

2) $20 million bond for parks - the issue I came for that we got to at about 10:00pm. During public comment time and rebuttal, I tried to make the point that there has not been a good accounting of how the first $22 million dollars of taxpayer money has been spent and that the board owes it to the taxpayers to assure that some specifics on spending this bond proposal are discussed such that we can hold people accountable for what they are promising to do with our money.

Only two commissioners seemed to be on the same page as me and voted against putting the bond request on the Nov 2nd ballot: Skip Alston and Billy Yow. See how having a Libertarian on the board might bring people in our county together!

1:55:07 AM

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