Convict-packed jails loom big for counties

They’ll ask ’15 Legislature for relief

Reimbursement for county jails housing state inmates because of crowding at state prisons will be a priority for the Association of Arkansas Counties during the coming legislative session.

Association officials, along with representatives from the Arkansas Municipal League, presented proposed legislative packages to a joint meeting of the House and Senate City, County and Local Affairs committees Thursday. The groups are looking for legislative sponsors for about 15 bills from each organization.

The session begins Jan. 12.

Chris Villines, the executive director of the Association of Arkansas Counties, said key legislation is still being drafted.

"The biggest issue that counties have faced in the last 10 to 15 years is in front of us this session, and that is the jail issue," he said. "At this point those items haven't been fleshed out into actual bills. The jail issue is a three-pronged issue for us -- overcrowding, lack of reimbursement from the state and a low reimbursement when we do get paid."

Counties have complained about the more than $7 million they're owed by the state for housing 2,200-2,600 prisoners daily.

State prison officials plan to ask the Legislature to build a 1,000-bed, maximum-security prison to relieve some of the crowding, but lawmakers have voiced concerns about the Board of Corrections' plan to raise the funding for the $100 million construction cost. The board is proposing to use bond money to build the prison and increase the state's license plate fee by about $2, depending on the financing plan the Legislature chooses to pay it off.

Villines said the association plans to ask for an increase from $28 per inmate per day, to $35. He said that still wouldn't pay for the actual cost of housing inmates, which the association estimated was about $49 per inmate per day in a study released earlier this year.

Rep. Fonda Hawthorne, D-Ashdown, questioned why the association would not ask for the full amount.

"We know that the state is not in a position to pay $49.35," Villines said. "The counties try to be good partners. ... We want to be reasonable about it."

The counties also want the state to pay the first month's medical costs for the state inmates they house. Right now, Villines said, counties pay for medical costs for the first 30 days, after which the state takes over that expense.

"We're not really sure where that number [of days] ever came from, but we want to look at whether that's something that the state ought to be putting up, since they are state prisoners," he said.

Other issues on the association's radar include shifting the cost of deputy prosecutors' salaries to the state; that would be about $5 million annually.

The association also wants to address recent concerns with the state's Homestead Tax Credit, where several candidates for office were caught claiming the credit on more than one residence. The tax credit is limited to primary residences.

"We think we are in a good position to work with the assessors and collectors in the state to pull the data in, run checks for double homesteads and get that information back to them, so they can get them off the books," Villines said.

The association wants to assume responsibility for collecting fines and recouping homestead credits improperly claimed by taxpayers.

Legislation enabling the association to create a collection program is being crafted, he added.

The Arkansas Municipal League also presented more than a dozen pieces of potential legislation including a bill that would amend state law to allow a city council to replace a mayor who dies less than a year before the end of his term. The situation arose twice this year, and the change would have prevented special elections in both cases, league officials said.

Another piece of proposed legislation, discussed in several of the state's larger cities over the past few years, asks the state to decrease its administrative fee for collecting and distributing taxes for municipalities. The current fee is 3 percent of the revenue; the bill would cap the fee at 2 percent.

Other proposed legislation would change the funding formula for district courts so that municipalities would pay a part of the operating costs on the basis of how much of the caseload was generated in that county or city. League attorney Mark Hayes said the change would not trump any interlocal agreement that already determines the distribution of funding.

Metro on 12/19/2014

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