There’s a popular phrase being bandied about at the Boone County Courthouse this election season: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The unofficial slogan aims to promote approval of a one-fifth-cent sales tax on Tuesday’s ballot that, if approved, would generate an estimated $14 million over three years to pay for expansion and renovation of the Boone County Courthouse and work on the Roger B. Wilson Boone County Government Center, the former Guaranty Land Title and Lifestyles Furniture buildings and the Johnson Building.
While voters are being asked to decide the measure, even high-level county officials don’t agree on its merits. Opponents of the tax say the money could be better spent on other county needs and that more research should be done on the county’s space needs.
Both Presiding Commissioner Keith Schnarre and Southern District Commissioner Karen Miller voted to place the measure on the ballot, but Northern District Commissioner Skip Elkin dissented.
“I think the Space Needs Committee did an admirable job identifying the needs and problems in the courthouse,” Elkin said. “But I think it’s inaccurate to call this a comprehensive capital improvements plan.”
Elkin said that two-thirds of the anticipated tax proceeds would go toward the courthouse, while space needs in the Sheriff’s, Public Works and various other government departments would get no money.
Sheriff’s Department officials aren’t pleased. “We certainly recognize the needs of the courthouse,” said Maj. Tom Reddin. “We have space needs like everybody else. We wish we were included in this proposal.”
Elkin also worries about the proposal’s impact on city governments such as Centralia and Columbia, and on school districts. The Harrisburg, Hallsville and Southern Boone County districts, for example, all have bond issues on Tuesday’s ballot.
“There’s implications above and beyond this,” Elkin said, adding that the county is asking voters to choose between “courts versus my kid’s classroom.”
Schnarre, however, said the sales tax is the county’s best option.
“This is by far the cheapest way to meet our needs for the next 12 to 15 years,” he said. “You got to look down the road more than one or two years.”
Columbia resident Mike Martin, who has been closely studying the proposal and campaigning against it, said he’s concerned about the potential effect on pending tax and social issues. As an example, he referred to efforts by the Boone County Mental Health Board of Trustees to seek a tax, and he cited a Boone County poverty rate that is almost 3 percent above the state average.
Martin also said his math indicates the county has 34,000 square feet of available space for which it has no solid plans.
“This to me indicates a problem with fiscal planning,” Martin said. “We are in a position now to look at so many other priorities when it comes to tax dollars.”
Schnarre said approval of the tax measure would give the county money to fix up its unused building space.
“Just because you got the space doesn’t mean it’s usable space,” he said.
One benefit of the planned courthouse expansion, proponents say, is that would keep together branches of the judiciary that work closely with each other. Officials have considered options that would spread those operations to other buildings. The prosecuting attorney’s office, for instance, could be moved to the third floor of the county government center.
Chief Marshal Jack Wonneman and others who work in the courthouse, however, said such a split would raise security concerns, and Assistant Prosecutor Dan Knight said it would cause inefficiency.
“We aren’t going to be nearly as effective if we’re in a different building,” Knight said, explaining that prosecutors often must appear in court at a moment’s notice or carry large amounts of paperwork to and from court.
Circuit Clerk Cheryl Whitmarsh raised the same concern. “Everybody in this building is very well connected,” she said. “We have to work so closely together. That’d be like separating the doctor from the nurse.”
Still, Whitmarsh said the county made a good decision when it bought other downtown buildings. That space can be used for other court needs, she said.
Approval of the measure would boost the sales tax in unincorporated Boone County to 5.55 cents on the dollar. Sales tax in Columbia, excluding transportation development districts, would rise to 7.55 cents.
Elkin said he plans to vote against the measure when he goes to the polls. County officials, he said, should reexamine the stability of the growth rate, study whether the planned work will truly address needs over the next 15 years and revisit the proposed allocation of the money.
“We owe it to the voters,” Elkin said.
Schnarre, however, is satisfied. “We feel we have really looked at it, studied it and justified it. We’re bringing it to the taxpayers to see if they agree with us.”