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Public commenter urges Cochise County leaders to disclose jail-tax bookkeeping, questions continued retail collections
Summary
Ali Morris told the Cochise County Jail District she has been unable to obtain itemized maintenance-of-effort expenses or an up-to-date jail tax fund balance, criticized heavily redacted reports, and said retailers continue charging a 0.5% jail tax after its stated end date.
Ali Morris, a registered public commenter, told the Cochise County Jail District on Nov. 4 that she has been unable to obtain current, itemized records accounting for jail tax revenue and maintenance-of-effort expenses despite public records requests.
Morris said she did not accuse the board of spending jail tax money on projects unrelated to a new facility and said she supports a new or improved jail. "I have never stated that this board spent jail tax monies on anything that was not related to a new jail," Morris said.
She said attempts to obtain an itemized list of maintenance-of-effort (MOE) expenses and an up-to-date balance of the jail tax fund were unsuccessful. Morris described a reported MOE overrun of "just over a million dollars" and said the sheriff's office had "an almost $1,000,000 budget excess," information she said was not fully available to the public.
Morris also criticized the timing and redaction of a 2021 National Institute of Jail Operations report, saying the version provided to the public was "highly redacted" and arrived months later. She referenced legal settlements and public comments by others and said she worried that the threat of lawsuits "may have the impact of stifling citizens' access to information and our right to free speech."
On the jail tax's retail collection, Morris said the extra 0.5% jail tax was supposed to end July 31 but that she had been charged the additional tax "a total of 6 times now in 4 different businesses in 2 cities." She added, "The Arizona Department of Revenue is not the recipient of this additional tax, so it stands to reason that these businesses are pocketing this extra money." Morris asked for clarification about whether businesses would add another half-percent if voters approve renewing the tax.
The board did not discuss or take action on Morris's requests during the meeting; supervisors Gomez and Antinori were present remotely and Supervisor Crosby was absent.
