Clark County’s current sales tax is 7.25%, which includes the state sales tax of 5.75% and the county sales tax of 1.5%. This ballot measure would increase the sales tax to 7.75%.
Things that are exempt from sales tax include groceries, prescription drugs, certain medical items, medical equipment, agricultural products and manufacturing equipment, baby products and others.
The current jail — housed in the public safety building downtown along with offices of the Springfield Police Division and Clark County Sheriff’s Office — is too small and noncompliant with multiple state standards.
The 9,200-square-foot jail was built in 1977 as a result of a federal mandate and opened in 1980 for $8.2 million. It was built as a 168-bed facility with three holding cells and 11 isolation cells.
Modifications were made in the early 2000s when 24 beds were added to the day rooms, but those beds are outside of jail specifications.
The current jail count is around 216, and they haven’t passed a minimum jail inspection in many years, Sheriff Chris Clark said Tuesday during the New Carlisle Rotary meeting.
“Imagine, you’ve got 40, 50, 60 people in that facility over capacity. It brings up problems with health, it brings up problems with damage, it brings up problems with fights,” he said.
Clark said the jail is a “ticking time bomb” and it only takes one court order for them to be in the same situation as 1977 and be mandated to build a new jail.
“We decided that we don’t want to wait for that to happen. We want to be able to control when, how and why we build this new facility. We don’t want to do it because we were forced to. We want to be proactive; we want to be out in front of this and we want to make sure that we’re providing a good service to the residents of Clark County,” he said.
Clark added if they get ordered to build a new jail, it will be cost prohibited with residents looking at a 1% sales tax increase with no choice in the matter, instead of a 0.5% increase.
Costs for a new facility are estimated at $100 million. If the levy passes, county officials think they can at least get $15 million from the state to help, along with the $2 million they have in reserves. The 0.5% sales tax increase will give the county $10 million a year.
Once enough funds are raised, county commissioners can vote to remove the additional tax.
Project costs include a $77 million construction cost, $16.5 million for professional services (architects, project management, etc.), a $4.1 million contingency and $2.3 million for site acquisition and preparation.
Scott Griffith, New Carlisle resident, said he supports the levy because of the increase in response time to other areas in the county, the overcrowding jail and needing more space, and being able to provide adequate services to inmates such as mental health and reducing the recidivism rate.
“I think that a big investment like this is always a balance between what is the cost and what is the benefit, and I have to justify the short term cost is going to benefit not only all of our residents here in the current and the next few years, but after we’re gone its going to be a benefit,” he said. “I just think that with the growth that is happening in western Clark County, to have the ability of our police and sheriffs to adequately protect us is critical.”
Griffith said he knows people don’t like additional taxes, but added a federal court could come in at any time and order the county to build a new facility.
Springfield resident Mike Morris said he’s not against the levy and thinks they need a new jail, but has reasons as to why he doesn’t agree with the plan for the new facility.
“I hate to say that I’m against the levy because that’s not totally true. I’m for it, I think we need a new jail, but the two things that give me pause about it is the price tag (and) location,” he said.
Morris said the price seems like “crazy money for a county level jail,” the current location that’s connected to the court system seems more efficient (don’t have to transport inmates to court and the building is already there) and centrally located since it’s in the middle of the county, and he’s “not down with chewing up more farmland.”
“I’m against the levy in so much for those reasons but I’m for the levy because I think we need a new jail. I’m in a very difficult position about what I’ll do come election day,” he said.
The new building will potentially be constructed in the south of Springfield close to Interstate 70.
A resolution was passed last month to authorize an agreement to purchase four parcels of land from Allen C. Armstrong for an almost 30-acre farm field in the 2600 block of South Limestone Street in the amount of $1 million, plus closing costs not to exceed $100,000.
County officials looked at different sites to build the new facility, but Clark said they wanted something in the southern or western part of Springfield to limit response to other areas in the county. They also wanted the facility to be more isolated so people can’t walk up to the jail to make it safer and more efficient.
The facility would be 130- to 140,000 square feet with 454 beds, and gives them room to add on to or expand on that facility if they would need to in the future.
“We want to have the ability and we want to leave a legacy for the next generation that comes up, the next generation of sheriffs, next generation county administrators and county commissioners that don’t have to build a new facility that will be able to spend a fraction of the cost to add another 100 beds,” Clark said.
“We’re designing a facility that will be able to expand and build upon and grow as the needs for Clark County will grow. We didn’t want to land lock ourselves, we didn’t want to lock ourselves into a situation where in 40, 50 years our predecessors are facing the same things that we’re facing right now.”
Officials have 365 days for “due diligent efforts,” which include conducting course sampling, conducting environmental studies and checking if there are endangered species or hazardous materials in order to make sure the site is suitable.
For now, Springfield Police Division plans to keep its headquarters downtown, City Manager Bryan Heck previously said.
A feasibility study was initially performed by DLZ in 2018 and updated in 2023. It created a report analyzing the attainability of building a new jail and public safety building, finding that a new jail would cost around $100 million now. In 2018, the study estimated a $35 million cost for renovations and a $55 million cost for a new facility.
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