FORT COLLINS — Larimer County voters Tuesday rejected a sales-tax extension to fund jail operations by a 56 percent margin.
Issue 1A would have repealed two 0.2 percent sales taxes and replaced them with a 0.375 percent tax for jail operations and other criminal justice programs. The measure would have brought in about $13.4 million over the next several years. The tax would have lasted 15 years.
Sheriff Justin Smith said he wasn’t surprised at the vote.
“It was a difficult year to push any kind of tax question,” he said. “But I’m still disappointed.”
Both existing 0.2 percent taxes were approved in 1997. The tax for jail funding is scheduled to expire in 2014, leaving a $7 million funding gap for the jail.
The other existing tax was for building courthouse facilities and resulted in the Larimer County Justice Center in Fort Collins. That tax is to expire next year.
Smith said he is already talking to the county commissioners about ways to fund the jail, which is overcrowded.
“We’ve got a couple of years to come up with a solution,” he said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
