Pueblo County voters to decide on tax increase for new jail

Voters will decide whether to approve a 1-cent tax increase to build a jail. Pueblo County Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday morning to put the question on the ballot in the November election.

“Nobody likes taxes, I don’t like them. I don’t think anybody does,” Sheriff Kirk Taylor said to commissioners, but he added that the current 35-year-old jail is falling apart.

The proposed tax increase would go into effect next year and expire after 10 years. It’s expected to generate $180 million, of which an estimated $140 million would be spent on building a jail behind the current judicial building.

“I think we’ve reached crisis proportions in our jail,” Taylor said. “And I think it’s tasked upon the leadership of this community to go forward and ask the people what they think.”

Taylor said the remaining $40 million would be spent on tearing down the current jail dormitory and turning it into a drug and alcohol rehab center, as well as giving Sheriff’s Office employees a raise.

Undersheriff J.R. Hall said because of the current pay structure, sergeants who have been employed with the office for decades could earn less money than newly-promoted sergeants.

Commissioner Liane “Buffie” McFadyen said the Sheriff’s Office may face challenges in getting voters to approve the hike.

“Most of the public don’t have a tangible touch, feel, smell, almost taste, for what’s happening inside a detention facility. That will be probably the greatest challenge in getting this approved is not so much developing empathy, but explaining the tangible need for a new jail to many individuals who have never stepped foot in one,” she said.