Editor:

We in Greene County are making a choice on the ballot on March 17, 2020.

A) Defeat measure #12

B) pass this new .25% sales tax which amounts to 70 million dollars in new taxes over 12 years.

This new tax will fund the construction of a MUCH bigger jail at a time when the justice system is headed toward less incarceration of people, nationally and here in Ohio. We should join this movement of fewer citizens spending time in jail for minor offenses. Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court stated that impoverished people sitting in jail because “they can’t afford bail serves nobody’s purpose” and extracts a human cost in lost jobs, lost homes and estranged families.

We already have a 236 bed Adult Detention Center, built in 2000. Only the downtown facility needs to be overhauled and this is not what Ballot Measure 12 is designed to do.

There is no funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment in this initiative and that is much needed here in Greene County.

Our sheriff’s department deserves our support for their important work. I wholeheartedly support helping our county administrators make a safer, more humane downtown facility along with supporting other outcome-effective approaches to rehabilitation for Greene County residents. Currently Ballot Issue #12 does not designate money for any of this.

Please, as you go to the polls on March 17 vote no on Ballot Issue #12. We can do better than this plan for Greene County.

Beth Holyoke

Yellow Springs