Articles & News

January 3, 2008

Yolo County Re-entry facility not likely in '09

By LIZETH CAZARES/lcazares@dailydemocrat.com

The state's budget problems have done what many area residents tried to do -- put a halt to Yolo County's re-entry facility.

An unsteady credit market and weary investors are preventing the state from selling bonds without a resolution to its budget problems.

"There's no demand to by California bonds because our budget is screwed up," Tom Dresslar, spokesperson for Treasurer Bill Lockyer said. "Large investors aren't interested in buying bonds from the state and won't be until we resolve our budget."

Bond packages such as the $750 million meant to be used to fund jail construction stated in assembly bill AB 900.

If the state can't sell bonds, it can't replenish the money it loans out to fund infrastructure projects, Dresslar said.

Those loans come from the same account that hold general fund money.

Protesters of a proposed "re-entry" prison facility near Madison collected donations to help their cause at the intersection of County Road 89 and Highway 16 in Madison in mid-2008. Now, due to statewide budget problems, it appears the proposed prison won't be built anytime soon. (Mathew Henderson/Democrat file photograph)

"(The) same pot of money that funds infrastructure loans, supports general fund," Dresslar said. "It's just getting drained without us being able to sell bonds."

With the money drying up, the state has to choose which to fund -- infrastructure projects such as the re-entry facility, or the general fund, which funds essential state services.

"General funds has a higher priority," Dresslar said.

No bonds equals no funds for more than just prisons.

"Not just the prisons but schools, roads, parks, environmental restoration projects, housing, veteran's homes," he said. "The whole panoply of infrastructure is affected."

Dresslar said the state has put a freeze to new loans and the use of any unspent money from loans. The freeze will stay until the state can start selling bonds again.

Bonds that will fund the county's re-entry facility and Woodland's $30 million in county jail expansion.

Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad said the stalling of the re-entry facility and jail expansions are a problem, but projects all across the county are suffering.

"It's not unique to that," Rexroad said. "It doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for the project."

Rexroad said some of the timelines for the facility were optimistic anyway. He said it will still happen, in the future, and said it is still vital to lower the recidivism rate of in the county.

Proponents are relieved, but that doesn't mean they're giving up.

Carla Phillips from Save Rural Yolo County said the organization will continue to stop the building of the re-entry facility.

"Save Rural Yolo County is working as hard as ever towards our goal, to stop the building of a prison in any rural location," she said. "Our lawsuit is going forward, despite the budget impediment to the prison."

They're inviting those who are against the building of the re-entry facility to go to the Corrections Standards Authority Meeting in Galt that's being held on Jan. 8.

Despite budget freezes, Phillips points out that the state signed ABX1-10 on Dec. 18.

"This is the clean-up language for AB 900 that they just signed into law," she said. "So it looks like they are all moving forward as though the state still has money to spend."

-- Associate editor Jake Dorsey contributed reporting to this article.