On April 2, 1985, the citizens of Johnson County voted yes in support of a bond issue for $15,000,000 for a new county jail. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to see the need for another jail ballot issue in less than ten years.

Instead of the typical bond issue however the citizens on April 4, 1995 passed the following: Question 1 - One-fourth of one percent countywide retailers' sales tax for public safety purposes, medium security jail, office facilities for Sheriff's Department, Juvenile Detention facilities and Community Correction's facilities. Like the 1985 jail bond issue it passed with flying colors. Unlike the 1985 jail question, the 1995 jail question was left with no sunset provision. It was designed to fund future public safety capital project needs.

Johnson County continues to grow with a 10-12% population increase each year. And naturally, as your population grows your criminal population will grow. It’s arithmetic. That’s the reason the citizens of Johnson County voted for this 1995 public safety question and that was the selling point from the sheriff, the county commissioners and community leaders. But were the citizens sold a rube? If the public safety tax had no sunset provision and is still in existence today, then why are we in our current public safety infrastructure situation?

In her 2007 State of the County Address, County Chair Annabeth Surbaugh stated the following:

“Some have suggested that Johnson County should seek sales tax authority to build future public safety projects and increase property taxes to pay for operational costs. I strongly believe that sales tax revenue must be allowed to pay for both the capital and operating costs of these facilities. In 1995, Johnson County voters approved a sales tax with no sunset to fund the construction and operation of three public safety facilities: the Juvenile Detention Center, the Adult Residential Center, and the Gardner jail. Today—just one decade later—those sales tax revenues have fallen short of covering operating costs. In fact, this year the sales tax revenue will cover less than two-thirds of the $33 million operating costs for those facilities. Construction costs represent only about one-quarter of the total investment, and those costs end when the debt is paid off. But the operating costs continue and increase each year.”

In 1995, serving in her first year as the rotating Chairman, prior to the adoption of the Home Rule Charter, Surbaugh led a landmark initiative to establish the Citizens’ Visioning Committee, a 25-member advisory panel that worked over the course of two years to develop a twenty-year projected future vision for the Johnson County community and the role that County Government would play in that vision. She was elected to the commission in 1992. Surbaugh is the only county commissioner left from the 1995 public safety tax proposal years.

The answer to our public safety infrastructure problem is in the statement made by Surbaugh. First the 1995 public safety sales tax was for monies to be held for future pubic safety infrastructure needs. The tax our citizens were informed of was one for public safety capital costs only and not operating costs. Operating costs are the cost it takes to do the daily business of running the operation, from staffing to fuel and were not part of the verbiage of the 1995 public safety tax question. Surbaugh is wrong and she knows it! Last year, Johnson Countians saw another tax increase for a 500-bed expansion of the jail and now, this year, we will see another tax question for another 500-bed expansion to the jail.

While I was the sheriff of Johnson County, I questioned where the money was at and why we could not use the public safety tax money for the public safety infrastructure needs, which is a core government service. And the answer, the commissioners have been using the money to cover operating costs for years. This way some of our liberal commissioners can fund non-core government services and pet projects and not have to raise taxes. It’s been a peanut and shell game for 13 years now. But the misuse of the money has caught up with them.

Surbaugh has led the charge in the supplanting of monies intended for other purposes now for over 13 years. Quite frankly, the taxpayers of Johnson County should not be in this situation. The monies should have been left for future public safety capital projects only with the understanding that operating costs should come out of the county general fund coffers.

There is no question that there are public safety infrastructure needs in Johnson County. The question is that in 1995 the citizens voted to eliminate that need by funding future projects. The moral dilemma is that the County Commission, specifically the Chairman, has been mismanaging the budget and using the monies for purposes that were not originally intended.

In 1995, the taxpayers were sold a bill of goods and for the last 13 years the shell game of money, budget, and tax manipulation has been the rule of the day. Like the Combat Tax in Jackson County, the Johnson County Public Safety Tax was not used and has not been used for its intended purpose. Now, County leaders want more? It’s time to say no, and hold them accountable for their actions. They should quit using public safety has a means to fund other non-core government services. Just follow the money!