A new jail and an expanded courthouse are on the long-range agenda for Warren County, the president of the board of supervisors told local attorneys Monday.

“A lot of our buildings had gotten in pretty bad shape,” David McDonald said of the years before casino development began.

McDonald reviewed how the money has been spent for the Warren County Bar Association and talked about future allocations.

The first casino opened in August 1993 and starting in 1994, the county has netted $2.5 to $2.7 million a year.

Rather than fold that money into operations, supervisors have set aside 10 percent or more per year for road resurfacing work and the remainder for capital projects.

“We put a new HVAC system in the courthouse, did about $800,000 to the Old Court House, put HVAC in the health department – that was about $800,000. We put that roof on the jail, that was $1.1 million,” he said, listing some of the work.

In the future, the county plans to build a permanent addition to the downtown courthouse, McDonald said. The county is now leasing auxiliary court space at 1220 Clay St. and the expansion, when built, will likely house additional courtroom, records and office space.

The jail, across Grove Street from the courthouse, may be moved – but that’s one of many options.

“The design of our jail doesn’t lend itself to proper utilization of jailers,” McDonald said of the building, which was built in the early 1900s and an annex in the 1970s. “A lot of the newer jail designs, you have a central area with wings going off where you can stay in one area.”

Tearing down the existing jail and building a new one on the site has been brought up, but the old jail is on the National Register of Historic Places, McDonald said.

“But then you’ve got the problem of, ‘What do you do with the old jail?'” McDonald added.

Converting some or all of the current jail to courthouse space has also been considered, McDonald said.

As for general tax policy, McDonald said when casinos opened, the county lowered its tax rate by 10 mills, but that reduction has almost been erased through subsequent increases, much of it in assessed valuations.

The tax value of one-quarter of the county’s tax base is reassessed every four years and this year’s increase has amounted to $102 million, or 3.8 percent, increase in the base, McDonald said. Of that amount, $52 million belongs to businesses or projects that have been made exempt from city and county – but not school – taxes, he added.

“We’re fairly liberal about granting tax exemptions to new industry and to existing industry if they’re going to provide a good many jobs here,” McDonald said.

As the county administration prepares its budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 it is planning to give all county employees, who received no pay raise this year, 5 percent raises, McDonald said.

McDonald also addressed questions about courthouse security.

“The courthouse is designed so that it’s not a very secure building,” McDonald said.

A committee is in place to study courthouse security, and McDonald also said he hoped it would report “some suggestions in the fairly near future, and we’ll try to get them implemented.”

Casinos and their hotels pay a variety of taxes, including property taxes and a local revenue-based tax of 3.2 percent. The latter tax is split with 65 percent to the City of Vicksburg, 25 percent to Warren County and 10 percent to the Vicksburg Warren School District.