Monroe County is considering using its share of the 2022 Economic Development Local Income Tax (ED-LIT) to fund the construction of a new jail. The county’s share of the 0.69% local income tax is about $11 million per year.
Monroe County Council members are using the money to pay off a 20-year, $180 million bond ($112 million of which will go toward construction and $68 million toward interest payments). Since prisons are not economic development, this seems like an underhanded, or at least misleading, use of “economic development” funds.
A new prison will not create jobs. It will not improve our infrastructure or make Monroe County more attractive to businesses. On the contrary, higher income taxes reduce people’s real wages, which in turn means employers have to pay more to remain competitive.
Monroe County is already an expensive place to live. There is a shortage of affordable housing. Residents earning $50,000 a year already pay $1,012 a year in local income taxes alone (and then there are property taxes, sales taxes, state taxes, and federal taxes). And now the county wants to use those income taxes, collected in the name of economic development, to build a new jail that won’t improve the economic situation of the average citizen one bit?
If Monroe County collects an “economic development” tax, it should go toward economic development, not paying off the interest on a huge loan. Why is the county so eager to take on debt? If we had a thriving economy with lots of good-paying jobs and social services, there would be a lot fewer people in prison anyway.
The 2021 Eve Hill report found that Monroe County pays $5,700 per person booked into the Monroe County Jail. That would be enough to pay every person booked into the Monroe County Jail $475 per month for their rent. That would be economic development.
As a county, we need to make sure our voices are heard before our officials leave us hanging with $180 million taken out of our paychecks that does not benefit us in any way.
Sam Holdeman is a member of Care Not Cages, an anti-incarceration advocacy group.
