There’s no such thing, as they say, as a free lunch. Somebody, somewhere, pays. And in Johnson County, it’s the taxpayers.
Property owners here, according to the county judge, are paying for the daily upkeep of inmates at the regional jail. So, dollar for dollar, each meal, each night’s lodging, each trip to the ER, doctor’s office or dentist, is being paid for by Johnson County homeowners and taxpayers.
Of the approximate $500,000 paid in property taxes last year, each dime, plus more, was spent on the upkeep of Big Sandy Regional Jail inmates.
That’s why the current jail administrator has asked local judges to consider adopting ordinances enforcing Kentucky statutute 441.265 — requiring prisoners in county jails to reimburse the counties for expenses incurred during the inmate’s confinement.
If time spent away from family and friends, work and schooling, won’t persuade them to turn their backs on crime and turn over a new leaf, perhaps a hit to the old pocketbook will.
We think it’s fair. After all, as hardworking, tax-paying citizens, no one out there is providing us with free meals, free medical and dental, or paying our mortgages for us. Some would say, even, that, apparently, crime does pay as abiding the law surely isn’t providing us with any monetary incentives.
But then, we don’t obey the law because we think it will make us richer to do so, we obey the law simply because it’s the right thing to do.
Protecting a hard-fought and hard-won way of life with a respected moral code and system of values enables one to amass riches much greater than a sizable bank account.
But for those who don’t seem to think so, perhaps placing a tight sqeeze on their pursestrings might help to convince them.
One thing’s for sure — honest, law-abiding taxpayers could sure use the break.
