The fact that property values are down and that tax revenues for our local Police Department were likely to be a little shaky was no surprise. The reality, though, when the numbers came out last week, as we report on page 1, are shocking to all of us, not just to city officials.
Sweet Home police operations, as we know them now, are facing massive cuts. This is the time for the City Council and staff to be creative and develop some wise solutions that will ease the constant financial pressure that has dogged Sweet Home police for years.
The implications are huge, considering that the unanticipated shortfall is roughly the price of 3 1/2 police officers. The department currently numbers 15 officers – 10 patrol officers, two sergeants, two detectives and a police chief.
Then there is the binding arbitration facing the city. The police union has put it on hold for now but has not dropped it. Previous to the latest news, the police chief told members of the School Board, aquatics district committee and City Council that if the union prevails in arbitration, it could cost one or two positions.
The impact of this will also affect the library, but we’re focusing here primarily on the impact that will be felt by Police Department because, of all the services the city provides its residents, security is the most basic – particularly now, when we’re deep into a a tough economy and starting to see more and more results of unemployment – pilfering, domestic disputes, etc.
The City Council meets Wednesday night to figure out how to respond to this mess, which includes police officers whom, the union claims, are dead last in compensation in relation to its list of comparable cities in Oregon, lagging 11 percent behind the lowest.
The police officers are scrambling after a $10 piece of pie that has more and more taxing districts and growing levies to feed as the years go by, and the city is at the point it can no longer fund the status quo, let alone pay for its final offer or what the union demands.
The city must do something, and it needs the support of its citizens to make it happen. The Police Department must be funded. If it crumbles and crime rates begin rising, that doesn’t bode well for long-term property values, which means even less tax revenue.
The City Council can probably find ways to cut the police budget prior to hitting personnel, but it won’t be enough. The council will have to step outside the usual budget box and start lobbying for meaningful changes in the way we do things here to fund our cops.
To help protect police funding, the City Council needs to look at forming a police district, much like the creation of the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District. The permanent rate funding enjoyed by a district is last on the list for the compression effect of property tax limitations.
Right now, the police levy, like all temporary local option levies, is first to be reduced when property tax limits are reached. Police funding should be last to be hit.
Compression will still exist if a police district were formed, but the department would shed substantial amounts of compression, which would be soaked up by the Linn County Law Levy and the library levy and then shared among the permanent rates.
Soaking the Linn County local option levy seems reasonable since city residents do not receive patrol services from the Sheriff’s Office, despite decades of paying for them. Other cities must contract for patrol services in addition to the taxes they pay to fund patrol services.
That leads to an alternative the City Council should consider pursuing. Do what it takes to develop a split rate for the Sheriff’s Office. This option solves a problem for the Sheriff’s Office, which is feeling similar effects of compression, and the Police Department. The Sheriff’s levy is compressed most inside the city. If patrol services were removed from city residents’ portion of the levy and the taxes increased proportionately on the county properties that do receive the benefit of Sheriff’s patrols, it would decompress city and county revenues in addition to ending an ongoing subsidy of city residents for services that benefit rural residents.
A similar option has already been created in Deschutes County, which fell victim to the same 1997 Measure 50 effect as Linn County and Sweet Home. It’s doable, and the details can easily be calculated. The City Council should ask the county to do this for the benefit of both law enforcement agencies. It has the added benefit of being the only option that would benefit the library as opposed to causing more problems for that fund.
A third option is to ask voters for another local option levy for the Police Department. It could be called the Compression Adjustment Levy. It would last for the remainder of the existing Police Department levy.
The amount would have to be high enough to shift funds from other local option levies, increasing the compression effect and revenue shortfalls on those levies instead. Unfortunately, it would likely raise taxes on any property that may not be in compression now. Sweet Home voters might go for it if they understood that generally, it would merely shift tax revenue around and not actually raise taxes.
The city also needs to abandon this notion that the Police Department must at all times be supported entirely within its own local option levy. Police services are the single most important tax-funded service our city provides. They should be treated like it, and if necessary, transfers made to cover the cost of the operation.
This notion started in the late 1990s, but it is pointless. City taxes and revenues are just that to us – city taxes and revenues – no matter which particular tax rate supplies them.
While we strongly support saving for capital projects, like a new City Hall, over time, the city could use the money it has set aside to cover this emergency for the yer while looking for a sustainable long-term solution.
The council and staff may have more ideas, but our second option is probably the best for everyone, and it could probably be implemented along with other more in-the-box ideas.
It’s time for the city to stand up and ask the county to join it in creating a split tax rate for county law enforcement. It won’t end compression, but it may return it to levels that allow our Police Department to function and perhaps even pay our police officers a more competitive wage.