County commissioners bypassing voters for new jail debt in Huntsville

Walker County Commissioners decided to bypass voters and build a new jail with "certificates of obligation" issued without voter approval. They say it's out of fear that waiting a few months for an election would allow construction costs to rise too dearly, but IMO it's because they've seen jail construction plebiscites in other mid-sized jurisdictions fail - most prominently in Smith County, where voters rejected jails three times before approving a radically scaled down version - and don't want to risk voters nixing the idea. In many cases, the decision to build a new jail results directly in a local property-tax increase. And of course, with so much state prison property in Huntsville, it's not like there's an excessively large property tax base in Walker County to begin with.