One of the hottest political topics in our state today is the issue of property tax reform. Local politicians and representatives of governments throughout Polk County met with the Polk County legislative delegation on Wednesday to discuss the impact of proposed property tax cuts. State Senators J.D. Alexander and Paula Dockery along with State Representatives Frank Attkisson, Seth McKeel, Dennis Ross, and Baxter Troutman were in attendance.
Everyone seems to agree on one thing - our property tax system is not fair in its current form and needs to be fixed. Agreement ends if the fix to the system reduces local government budgets
You can catch more of the news coverage from this event at The Ledger. Our reason for attending the meeting and mentioning it here in our blog is not to report the news - we leave that to the media who do a great job at it. Rather, our goal is to answer questions we receive from the community asking what the impact of property tax reform will be on the police department.
The answer at this time is - we just do not know because it is too early to tell.
Some initial projections indicate the loss of revenue to the police department could equal losing 12 police officer positions, while other estimations are not that severe. We have already been asked to maintain our operating expenses in next year's budget at this year's level (as opposed to the original 3% increase) and impose a soft hiring freeze for some positions. We have not been asked to cut any positions.
Without any firm revenue figures upon which a budget can be created, we have no solid idea what type of reduction our budget faces. What can be stated at this time is fairly straight forward and simple... a reduction in the budget will require the police department consider four options:
- Maximize efficiencies wherever possible
- Find alternative funding sources, such as grants or user fees
- Cut some minor services to maintain current staff
- Reduce staff size, preferably through attrition
The Executive Staff began discussing this issue several months ago, and we continue to carefully monitor the situation so we can respond in a reasonable and prudent manner rather than with some knee-jerk reaction. What we can state with certainty is that we will maintain sufficient resources to answer 9-1-1 phone calls, respond to emergency calls for service, patrol neighborhoods, address emerging crime trends, and conduct follow up investigations.
Our goal is straight forward - we will avoid scare tactics that suggest crime will run rampant through our community if our budget is reduced by any amount, but at the same time be honest in answering questions about how we will work around what appears to be an inevitable loss of some funding.
That is our commitment to excellence in action.
-Asst Chief Bill LePere
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