Committee to try to resolve problems of More Cops tax

CARSON CITY — When Clark County voters approved a sales tax increase in 2004 to hire more police officers, the additional money wasn’t supposed to “supplant” what already was being spent on police.

But no one at the time suspected Nevada would fall into the worst recession in generations, said Assembly Taxation Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-Las Vegas. And instead of spending more on police, Kirkpatrick said, North Las Vegas and other departments now are spending less.

Her Assembly Taxation Committee will try today to resolve the problem of some police departments being in violation of the voter-approved More Cops tax.

AB572, introduced Monday, allows police departments to use the 0.25 percent sales tax money to hire cops as long as their annual police spending does not decline by more than 2 percent.

“No one ever put in place what would happen if the economy went down,” Kirkpatrick said.

Chuck Callaway, a Metropolitan Police Department lobbyist, said his agency used the More Cops funds to hire police for several years. But in recent years it has not filled some vacancies and may be down close to 2005 staffing levels.

The attorney general’s office recently issued an opinion that said agencies would run afoul of the law if they used More Cops money while cutting their budgets.

Callaway said the bill would allow police departments to use the More Cops money to hire new officers even while their budgets decline.

While Clark County voters approved a 0.5 percent sales tax increase to hire police, the Legislature has limited that collection to a 0.25 percent rate. Attempts by police to secure the additional 0.25 percent were scuttled by legislators in 2009 because of the economy.

The funds go to hire police in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.