News-Record.com

Now that Guilford County is looking for an architect to design a new 500-600-bed jail in downtown Greensboro, county commissioners must decide how to pay for it.

One way or the other, taxpayers will foot the bill. But which wallet-lightening device will the commissioners employ? A bond referendum (read: property-tax increase) has been discussed, and a one-cent sales-tax hike over two years is being pushed by Sheriff BJ Barnes.

But there's another way. County finance director Brenda Jones Fox writes favorably of using a certificate of participation approach in this recent memo.

COPS financing, as it's commonly known, is basically borrowing at a higher interest rate (again read: property-tax increase) than a bond issue. Executing the loans for a jail will take two to three months, Fox writes.

But COPS don't require voter approval. That could appeal to a number of commissioners who fear that voters would turn down a bond referendum on the jail. A "no" vote could force the county to issue COPS anyway, but Fox writes that the bond failure could drive up the COPS interest rate and increase the chances of a lawsuit to stop the process.

The bottom line on COPS: a $100 million jail would cost $7.6 million over 20 years and add about two cents to the property-tax rate. County taxpayers now shell out 64.28 cents per $100 of property valuation.

But don't take those numbers for granted. Several commissioners have expressed support for a smaller, less expensive jail, so taxes might not go up that much.