Proposal: Guarantee police, fire funding

By Rob O'Dell

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

By the numbers

● Some council members want to provide guaranteed funding each year for police and fire service.

police and fire costs

$188 million

per year

400 New officers

$88 million

over four years

Tucson's Democratic City Council majority says it's ready to put your money where their mouth is on public safety, proposing a dedicated funding source in the annual budget.

Four of the five Democrats on the council have thrown their weight behind an idea to guarantee there's enough money to cover police and fire protection, regardless of what other demands are put on the budget.

Jose Ibarra, Nina Trasoff and Steve Leal have all recently proposed either fully dedicated or supplemental funding sources for public safety, which now consumes $188 million a year in local taxes.

While they don't know yet where the money would come from, they said the move would protect police and fire services from having to compete with other departments during budget deliberations.

Fellow Democrat Karin Uhlich hasn't made any similar proposals but said "a dedicated funding source is certainly worth exploring."

"This is going to be a major issue during budget times," Ibarra said. "Public safety is an issue that we talk about every year and is an issue every year."

While the Democrats have enough votes to create a dedicated funding source, independent Carol West and Republican Mayor Bob Walkup immediately tarred the proposal as a tax increase. They said public-safety needs can be met through a long-term financial sustainability plan that has been created by City Manager Mike Hein.

Democrat Shirley Scott said she likes the idea of a public-safety funding source, but now isn't the right time to be debating it, with the Regional Transportation Authority transportation plan and tax vote looming on May 16.

She said guaranteed funding for public safety should have been done before the council imposed garbage fees.

Ibarra said the dedicated funding source should not have a ceiling so it can grow with the city's population and needs.

Council members have asked city staff members to come up with specifics and financial numbers, Trasoff said, adding that questions of how exactly to do it and how to fund it are "premature."

"This is a first step, so we're not constantly looking at the general fund," Trasoff said.

Ibarra, however, said he realizes a truly dedicated funding source to cover the full $188 million in police and fire costs, plus growth, may take several years to implement.

"We need a dedicated funding source that doesn't have a ceiling," he said. "The goal is the entire budget of both agencies."

Leal, on the other hand, is proposing a special sales tax on construction materials as a supplemental funding source to hire new police officers and provide extra money for public safety.

The tax could generate about $15 million to $17 million, Leal said, noting that could pay for a substantial number of new officers. He said the city may need two or three other sources to find the money needed to expand the Police Department by the 400 new officers called for by Hein is his long-term plan.

"I have never thought that we could find a silver bullet to fix our problems," Leal said.

He said the virtue of a construction materials tax is that other jurisdictions in Pima County already have a similar tax so it wouldn't make the city uncompetitive. In addition, he said it is a way for growth to pay for itself.

City Budget Director Jim Cameron said creating a complete separate funding source for all $188 million will be difficult because there isn't a revenue stream that large.

Creating a supplemental funding source would likely mean some kind of a raise in taxes, he said.

West agreed.

"A dedicated funding source would require a tax increase, and that would require a vote of the people," she said.

Walkup said the city can hire the new officers needed without raising taxes or fees, which he called for in his annual state of the city speech.

His chief of staff, Andrew Greenhill, said the City Council already did the "heavy lifting" of increasing the city's revenue when it upped the city's garbage fee from $2 to $14.

He said that the budget is in healthy enough shape the city can hire about 400 new officers over four years at the cost of $88 million, as is laid out in Hein's public-safety plan, presented to the council in early January.

Hein said he expects to receive a lot of direction from the council in early April when budget discussions start. He said that's when the council will decide on any dedicated funding source.

"Part of that direction may include it, part may not," Hein said.

On StarNet: Want to know more about crime in Tucson? Check out the StarNet Police Beat blog at azstarnet.com/crime