Our View: Businesses need to help build case for new jail

On Tuesday night, with Canyon County’s latest jail bond heading toward defeat, Sheriff Chris Smith said he wanted to believe the plan fell victim to the recession. A fair assumption.

County officials had, after all, whittled $26.5 million from the much-needed project. The resulting $46 million proposal represented a good plan at the worst possible time. Even with the savings, the jail would have increased taxes by $16.47 a year on $100,000 worth of taxable property.

Tax increases are never easy or politically palatable during a recession. But when does it become bad for business, and bad for the economy, to continue to neglect law enforcement? Or has Canyon County already reached that tipping point?

The county's jobless rate actually fell in September, yet remained at 10.9 percent. With so many communities in the same straits, employers can afford to be choosy about where they locate.

Will they choose a community that has voted down two jail bonds since 2006, and has been sued over jail conditions? A community trying to get by with a jail outgrown during a 16-year population growth spurt?

A community with 7,000 unserved warrants? A community where police officers might make an arrest that carries little deterrent value, since a suspect is apt to be released from jail the following morning?

When a county can afford only catch-and-release policing, word gets around within the criminal crowd. And when a county doesn't invest in public safety, word gets around in the economic development community.

A crime rate is one of the many metrics businesses use before making a relocation decision. All things equal, a business will build a plant or move a team of executives to a safe community.

Tuesday's jail bond received 58 percent - short of the daunting two-thirds supermajority required by law. That's not a bad showing, considering that elected officials were the only people speaking for the jail, and local law enforcement associations footed the bill to get the word out. "I guess that's maybe a little self-serving, or maybe it looked that way," Smith said Thursday.

Since the failed election, a couple of business people have approached Smith, promising to put money into a campaign for a new jail. They'll soon get their chance to make good on their promise; Smith said the issue is likely to reappear on the ballot in May.

A new jail provides short-term stimulus by creating several hundred construction jobs. It's also an investment in a safer place to do business. County officials make a good law-and-order case for a jail; business leaders need to back them up with a dollars-and-cents case.

"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.