YOUNGSTOWN
A judge ruled the city didn’t violate any laws when it enacted a $1 per-prisoner, per-day tax on private prisons.
The decision means Corrections Corporation of America owes the city about $1.3 million for federal prisoners at its Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road.
But the company will appeal, said Steve Owen, its spokesman.
“We’re disappointed with the ruling, and we do intend to pursue all of our procedural avenues, including filing an appeal,” he said.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled Tuesday for summary judgment in favor of the city.
“We’ve made it through the process, and [CCA] is 21/2 years behind on payments,” said city Law Director Anthony Farris. “We think this is a fair fee imposed, and it should be paid. We’re looking for all of the back money, but we’re willing to listen to what else they have to say.”
As a way to generate more income at a time when the city’s government was facing serious financial challenges, city council approved legislation in November 2009, effective Dec. 1 of that year, taxing private prisons in Youngstown $1 a day for each convict it houses.
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, the private prison owned by CCA, is the only facility that falls into that category.
The prison, which has a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, houses about 1,500 illegal aliens convicted of felonies.
In January 2010, Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit company based in Nashville, Tenn., filed a lawsuit contending the city ordinance violates the U.S. and Ohio constitutions and the city charter.
In his eight-page decision, the judge said the city law doesn’t violate the federal or state constitutions, or the city charter.
Comments
The council learned of this from chapter one of "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Taxation" -- entitled "Tax 'Em Because You Can." Just wait until they get someone to read for them chapter four: "Redheads Deserve A Surtax." And chapter seven, "Fining Property Owners For Their Trees Littering In Autumn."
I like taxing stupid comments on the Vindy . :):)
If they don't like it they can ship their business overseas to China, like any other American business. On second thought, that might not work.
CCA has a countrywide record of unwillingness to pay its taxes. 15 years ago, when it had the Youngstown city council in it pocket, they absolved it of paying taxes for 12 years. This was in the heyday of their friend Sheriff/Representative/Felon Trafficant. The big problem was, that the council had no authority to waive school district taxes.
May 5, 2003, The Vindicator:
A new tax deal and "best efforts" at reopening the closed private prison are the main features in a major legal settlement. The City Law Director said he is confident the prison's owner, Corrections Corporation of America, eventually will reopen the prison with the lawsuit resolved. City council approved the settlement at a special meeting Thursday. The deal, after a year of talks, avoids a trial scheduled for last summer but delayed while the deal developed. At issue was the 5-year-old suit the school board filed against CCA and the city over tax breaks granted to the company. Millions of dollars were at stake. The 12-year deal gives CCA a 100-percent abatement on property taxes.
The city and county bear burdens of the added costs that CCA brings to the municipality. That includes prosecutions for crimes, such as murders committed inside, for riots, such as the one that happened six days ago in Adams County, MS, and for escapes, including the one where six DC prisoners went through the fence, four of them murderers, and CCA guards didn't notice the holes in the fences. Then they failed to notify the Sheriff or Police Department they were gone until an inmate got hold of a phone and called 911.