SALES TAX FOR JAIL TO BE ON BALLOT

Supervisors Agree To Put Measure Before Voters In March But Scale Back Size
Of Facility From 800 Beds To 400

A sales tax increase will be put in front of voters next March to build a
400-bed jail on Santa Maria farmland and upgrade juvenile detention facilities.

County supervisors decided Tuesday to place the measure on the ballot after
intense lobbying by the sheriff and the head of the Probation Department.
The tax measure approved by the board, however, would raise less
construction money and build a smaller jail than the officials wanted.

"We have to do this," said Tom Urbanske of Santa Maria, the 5th District
Supervisor. "It's so important. There really is no option."

The half-cent sales tax would last five years, costing about $48 annually
for the average consumer, Sheriff Jim Thomas said. That would raise $100
million for construction.

After five years, the tax would fall to a permanent quarter-cent tax,
raising $13 million annually for operations and upkeep of the new facilities.

If voters embrace the tax, the jail and renovated juvenile facilities would
open within five to seven years.

The new jail along rural Black Road would end daily busing of inmates
between the Goleta jail and North County courtrooms. It also would curb the
number of inmates released early because of a court order to reduce jail
crowding. Since June, more than 1,000 inmates have been released early.

Youth crime prevention programs would be strengthened through the tax money
generated, said Probation Chief Sue Gionfriddo. The 50-year-old Juvenile
Hall complex in Santa Barbara would be rebuilt. Plus, a new 120-bed Juvenile
Hall would be built near Santa Maria next to the new jail.

So it was with great relief that Gionfriddo and Thomas reacted to Tuesday's
4-0 decision by the supervisors to put the measure on the March 2000 ballot.
But they're not relaxing. Just getting started.

"To accomplish that with such broad-based support is remarkable, but I don't
want to minimize the challenge ahead of us," she said. "We've now passed the
first step of a first ladder. We've got a long way to go. There's a
tremendous need for public education throughout the county to fully advise
the voters of all the facts."

Winning the required two-thirds voter approval will be tough. A county-hired
consultant took a poll last spring of 600 likely voters and found support
was only 62 percent -- about five points short of the necessary 66.7 percent.

Past county Grand Juries have issued reports urging the county to consider
building a North County jail to ease crowding at the main jail.

Foes of the measure, however, say the government is merely raiding taxpayer
wallets again instead of making better use of its existing revenue.

The county has a multimillion-dollar backlog in unrepaired roads, bridges,
sidewalks and parks, said Andy Caldwell, executive director of the Coalition
Of Labor, Agriculture and Business.

Year after year, the board fails the public, with lack of leadership on
spending priorities, yet it approves raises for county employees, Caldwell said.

Bruce Rittenhouse, activist and Santa Barbara City Council candidate, said
he opposes the measure because money should be devoted to education programs
instead of locking up more people.

"I'm in total opposition," said Ernest Armenta of the Santa Maria Valley, a
frequent government critic. "I'm going to encourage my voters to shoot it down."

In voting to go ahead with a ballot measure, supervisors followed the lead
of board chair Naomi Schwartz of Santa Barbara on Tuesday. She favored
building a 400-bed jail, however, not the 800-bed jail the sheriff wants.
Schwartz also proposed cutting the half-cent sales tax from eight years to five.

Approving a smaller jail allowed supervisors to prune $33 million from the
construction cost estimate -- an effort to make the measure more appealing
to voters.

"To me that is a package that is fiscally prudent," Schwartz explained.

Supervisor Susan Rose agreed. She wants to avoid building the additional 400
beds, if possible, perhaps by investing more in prevention programs.

Sheriff Thomas said the 400-bed jail is acceptable.

"Perhaps that will be an easier sell to the public," he said. "That meets
our needs in the next 10 years. But at some point we will need to look at
more bed space."