Tax savings: Court correct in making state pay
Property owners in Fayette and Greene counties should rejoice at a recent Commonwealth Court ruling that relieves counties of the costs associated with prosecuting criminal cases occurring inside state prisons. Between them, SCI-Greene and SCI-Fayette have an inmate capacity of 4,500. As it stood prior to last week’s ruling, taxpayers in those counties would have borne the added cost of all criminal cases arising from within the walls of the maximum-security lockups.
In the hoopla surrounding the prisons’ openings, much attention was paid to positives like jobs, infrastructure development and economic diversification. But the backend costs to local taxpayers were left on the shadowy back burner.
The court ruling makes the state responsible for added local costs related to the housing of its inmates. It makes perfect sense and should be upheld on any appeal.