SALT LAKE CITY — The $507 million public safety bond appears to have failed to pass. Now, Salt Lake County leaders are figuring out what happens next.
"I'm willing to concede that this didn’t pass," Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson told FOX 13 News on Tuesday.
The bond would have closed the aging Oxbow Jail and combined Salt Lake County's two jails into one with more capacity. It would have also built a new "Justice and Accountability Center" that would have served as a place for people with substance abuse or mental health needs to get help before being released from jail onto the streets, reducing recidivism. It was also seen as a way to help reduce homelessness.
"Right now? We’re at capacity," Sheriff Rosie Rivera said of the county's jails. "We want to make sure we have room for those violent offenders. The jail bond was going to do that for us... it’s just unfortunate. I don’t think the community understood how important that is."
As of Tuesday afternoon, the bond was failing by a close margin — roughly 52% against and 48% for. It had a lot of political support when members of the Republican majority county council joined the Democratic mayor in supporting it. Other political leaders including Governor Spencer Cox and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall expressed support.
But county leaders told FOX 13 News they heard different reasons why it failed with voters.
"Not everybody understood it. I heard from a lot of people who said, 'I saw it, I read it, I just didn’t even vote on it because I didn’t understand it,'" said Salt Lake County Council Chair Laurie Stringham.
Mayor Wilson said it was a complex proposal and it may have been caught up in voter rage against constitutional amendments and national politics.
"I think in a year when you look at the national returns, people were really concerned — and I understand it — with the cost of milk right now, the cost of eggs, housing and everything in-between," she said. "So we were asking people to pay more. I would say in the end, they would pay less by investment."
On Tuesday, council members waded into the budget for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, largely discussing wages to retain police officers. Asked what they will do now that the bond failed, the council chair said supporters of the bond will have to regroup.
"Money is going to have to go into places that we didn’t really want to put it," Stringham said.
Mayor Wilson said she planned to meet with Gov. Cox this week to see if the state could help fund some initiatives. She would not rule out the potential of bringing a similar bond before voters in the future with more education about the benefits of such an investment.
Stringham said she would support that idea, arguing that the Justice and Accountability Center is a good idea that she hoped voters would come around to supporting with better information.
"We're going to have to. We're going to have to put something back on the ballot because we can’t afford to just pay it," said Stringham. "I’m not willing to just up and raise everyone’s taxes property-wise and things like that."
