Resident presses Cochise County jail tax accounting as board approves consent items

A Cochise County resident raised questions about how jail-district tax revenues have been collected and spent during the Cochise County Jail District meeting on Sept. 16, and the board approved consent agenda items 1 and 2 by voice vote.

The resident, identified in the record as Miss Morse, told the board she attended two-hour town-hall meetings in Bisbee and Wilcox and said she still had unanswered questions about revenues and expenditures. "I was told to take my questions regarding the jail district tax to the two-hour public meetings," she said. She said voters had been told the tax would raise "$13 million to $14 million," but she had recently learned the total income was "almost $17,300,000," that "over $1.5 million" had already been spent, and that the current balance was "over $15.5 million." She asked whether additional revenues…