The Numbers Don’t Add Up
My favorite newspaper had an article Sunday morning (http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2010-07-11/decade-works-lubbock-county-jail-ready-business) that still has me scratching my head and wondering who to be upset with—the newspaper or Lubbock County.
In 2002 Lubbock voters, with the strong encouragement of The A-J’s editorial department, overwhelmingly approved an $82 million bond proposal to construct a new county jail near the airport to replace our aged and dilapidated downtown jail.
According to the newspaper on Sunday, the new jail will end up costing just under $100 million, $18 million more than was approved in 2002. But, according to Lubbock County Commissioner Bill McCay, the jail is coming in $6 million under budget?!?
Further reading the story in The A-J, I learned that commissioners approved an additional $12.5 million bond in 2006 to add to the $82 million bond approved by the voters.
So now we have a voter-approved $82 million bond added to a commissioners-approved $12.5 million bond for a total construction project of $94.5 million. So how can a jail that is costing $100 million be $6 million under budget?
Another number that puzzled me about the newspaper story was that someone, either McCay or the writer (it’s hard to determine from the story), reported that when the new jail accepts its first inmate in a couple of weeks, the delay in opening the jail will be nine months.
A few sentences later the story indicates that the jail was originally scheduled to open in December 2008—18 months ago!
After scratching my head trying to understand how the county was able to come up with these goofy numbers, I found myself laughing at this quote by our new sheriff: “With the exception of the delays, it’s been a model project.”
I hate to be the one to break the news to the sheriff, but the year-and-a-half long delay prevents the jail from being a model project.
There was no doubt that Lubbock County needed a new jail, but the manner in which the county has gone about manipulating the numbers in order to claim that a project has come in $18 million over what citizens approved and claim it is $6 million under budget indicates to me that the commissioners are playing the voters for fools.
A couple of other jail items
When the new jail was first being discussed by the county, it was pointed out that the old jail would be renovated to house inmates who were on trial at the downtown courthouse. Now the commissioners are planning to spend $1 million to house inmates in the courthouse basement!
Eight years ago while drumming up support for the jail, Commissioners Kenny Maines and James Kitten (both conveniently not around anymore) said the jail would add seven cents to our county’s tax rate, which at the time was 19 cents per $100 valuation. The 2009 tax rate, at 32.9 cents, is significantly higher.
Good work Randy! If the rumors about the ineptitude of some of the sub contractors are half true, then there have been real problems in the building of that facility.
Great job Randy. I guess now we need to get ready to get played by LISD.
I am glad I am not the only one that sees this fleece of Lubbock tax payers Randy. They tell us we will make money selling beds to the Feds at $65 a bed. That they are planning on around 150-200 beds. The average transition time for federal immigration transfers is 2 days. Judge Head admits we will only be paid for beds occupied. But planning is for 150-200 beds per month. I don’t see it happening and like everything else it is bad cash-flow planning. That is bad enough with businesses do it, it is a disaster when governments do it. And who is leading the financial charge? A lady that went through personal bankruptcy twice! Then they tell us we’ll make money selling beds to rural counties. Problem is there are cheaper rents in the other west Texas jails that have been built than Lubbock’s new one. Bad math…
Again — you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the “new” County jail. I saw that article and ended up with the same dandruff problem. This is one of those rare occasions where you can directly put the blame on a few select individuals, rather than an anonymous “group-think” committee.