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Commissioners vote to fund new courthouse, jail expansion




Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

County leaders are one step closer to making a new judicial complex a reality after voting to fully fund a new $78 million courthouse in the form of a bond issue. 

Sumner County Commissioners voted 19 to 3 on Dec. 16 to issue up to $103.6 million in general obligation schools and public improvement bonds. 

Of the $103 million, $86,7500 will fund the design, construction and equipping of a justice center and related facilities. Another $16.8 million will go toward constructing and equipping two schools on the new Liberty Creek school complex north of Long Hollow Pike.  

Commissioners approved a resolution in October adopting an overall plan for the new judicial complex. Included in the plans is a new $78.4 million courthouse just off the square in Gallatin that would consolidate all of the county’s courts under one roof. 

The plans also include a parking garage behind the Gallatin Public Library estimated to cost around $9.4 million, and an expansion of the Sumner County Jail – estimated to cost $5 million. 

A second phase of the complex would include renovation of the existing courthouse on the square as well as an expansion of the sheriff’s office at an estimated cost of at least $20 million.

The recent bond issuance comes four months after commissioners voted to increase the county’s property tax rate by 17 percent, and a year after issuing an initial $103 million bond for the Liberty Creek schools. 

Those who voted against the resolution expressed concern over the amount of debt the county is incurring as well as the impact on tax payers.  

With the interest the county will pay on the two recent bonds, the county will have issued a quarter of a billion dollars of debt, estimated District 1 Commissioner Moe Taylor.  

“We’ve got to slow down,” said Taylor. “I mean, we’ve got to put the brakes on.”

Taylor said that the county’s adequate facilities tax brings in around $2.8 million a year. 

“I call that an inadequate facilities tax because it’s not keeping up with a $100-and-some-million-dollar-[school project],” he said. “We’ve got to make the people that’s causing this [growth] to step up to the plate rather than ask our property owners to do it every time.” 

District 11 Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield asked what the county’s debt capacity will be after the recent bond is issued.

Budget Committee Chairman Chris Taylor said that the maximum amount the county can borrow fluctuates as previous debt is paid off.  

Chris Taylor said the county will have around $12 million in debt capacity next year; $19 million the following year and almost $50 million the year after that. 

“We have plenty of breathing room,” he added.

Before commissioners passed a 34-cent tax increase in August, the county had maxed out its debt capacity until 2024, Mansfield said.

He asked why commissioners didn’t wait until 2024 to borrow the money for the justice facility instead of raising property taxes. 

Overcrowding in the jail needed to be addressed quickly, noted Chris Taylor. He also said that the timeline for the parking garage had been moved up as part of negotiations with the city of Gallatin. 

A resolution to issue a bond not to exceed $103 million passed 19 to 3 with Mansfield, Moe Taylor and Terry Wright, also of District 1, voting no. 

Commission members also voted to accept a bid submitted by Robert S. Biscan & Company to construct the two Liberty Creek schools – a high school and an elementary school – for $104.6 million. That measure passed 20 to 2 with Mansfield and Moe Taylor voting no.

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