Police tax hike: Find savings to boost public safety funding
The Clark County Commission is considering an increase in the sales tax rate to prop up police services, but not in a way that honors the will of voters.
Way back in 2004, before the Great Recession laid waste to the valley’s economy, the electorate backed a half-cent increase in the tax so the Metropolitan Police Department and other jurisdictions could hire more officers. The More Cops question was a nonbinding, advisory vote, leaving it to the Legislature and, ultimately, the County Commission to authorize the increase. A quarter-cent increase took effect in 2005. This year, state lawmakers decided the commission could impose an additional increase, but not by a full quarter-cent. If five of the seven commissioners approve, the sales tax rate would increase by 0.15 cents, to 8.25 percent.
The immediate result of this increase, however, will not be more cops. Unlike the quarter-cent hike of 2005, which has put more than 500 new Metro officers on the streets, the 0.15-cent increase would be little more than a bailout to fill a $30 million budget hole. If commissioners reject the increase, up to 250 officers could be laid off. If commissioners approve the tax increase, those 250 jobs would be saved, and about 100 new officers could be added in the years ahead.
And as Sheriff Doug Gillespie pointed out during Tuesday’s commission meeting, another sales tax increase is just a short-term budget fix. Eventually, the county and the city of Las Vegas will have to come up with even more money to keep the Metropolitan Police Department whole.
The reason the department needs a tax increase Band-Aid is the same reason all local governments have structural budget problems: unsustainable increases in personnel costs. Wages, benefits and pension contributions keep rising, the state of the economy notwithstanding.
Police bargaining groups want pay raises. Mr. Gillespie supports reinstating 4 percent “merit” pay raises (defined by minimal performance standards) and 0.5 percent longevity pay raises within the department. It’s a huge perception problem for commissioners to support higher taxes on the masses, who are not seeing such wage growth, to pay for raises for police who already collect high salaries. But it’s also undesirable to lay off police officers when public safety is local government’s most important charge.
Make no mistake, this tax increase would bail out more than police departments. It would prop up the salaries and benefits of all other Clark County and city of Las Vegas employees, making it possible for the rest of them to receive pay raises, too. Witness the new four-year contract the city supports giving its firefighters. The tax increase would spare commissioners and council members from making difficult but necessary budget decisions.
The best solution to this problem is one the County Commission and the Las Vegas City Council refuse to consider: major cost-saving steps to free up tens of millions of dollars for higher-priority needs. Impose significant reforms and better management at money-losing University Medical Center. Outsource park maintenance. Get fire departments out of the business of medical transports.
The County Commission wants public feedback on the sales tax issue before it votes in August. Tell the commission to preserve police positions through leaner, more efficient government — not the struggling public’s dime.
