Public safety tax issue goes before voters again

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, March 21, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

Henderson voters will face the same public safety tax they voted down in November when they return to the polls in June.

City Council members voted Tuesday to float the initiative for a second time in seven months, repeating opinions they have aired in recent months while stopping short of committing to the 8 percent property tax hike.

Most often, they blame the failure of the initiative in November on the public's lack of understanding regarding the need for the new tax.

If approved, the initiative would tax homeowners a projected $850 million over 30 years and pay the wages for 237 new public safety officers, including 166 police officers and 30 firefighters. The new hires would be put on the streets over a seven-year period.

The tax would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $84 annually. In 2000, such homeowners paid a total of $1,020 in taxes. About $249 of that went to the city. The rest went to the Clark County School District, the state and other county agencies.

The proposed tax could provide the city with funds to accept a $2.25 million federal grant won in January that would pay part of the salaries for 30 new police officers over the next three years. In 2004 the city would be responsible for all costs associated with the new hires.

City officials did not comment on the federal grant Tuesday, but City Manager Phil Speight said recently the decision whether to accept the grant has not yet been made.

Before the meeting Tuesday, which packed council chambers with close to 200 people, supporters of the tax hike handed out mini-clipboards asking residents to join Citizens for a Safer Henderson.

That group, led by Henderson resident Jim Ferrence, will lead the effort to convince residents to approve the new tax in the three months leading up to June 5. The measure failed by 865 votes in November, less than 1 percent of votes cast.

Ferrence is also vice president of Las Vegas-based Paladin Advertising, the political consulting group that has run election campaigns for Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson.

Paladin Advertising is also running Councilman Jack Clark's re-election campaign.

In remarks addressed to the council, Ferrence said if the tax doesn't pass the city could be forced to shave funding for senior centers, recreation centers, parks and public works projects to pay for public safety, which is a priority.

For those who have said the city can afford to cut spending in those areas, Ferrence had a few choice words. "Anyone who says that is simply not in possession of the facts," he said.

But Horizon Ridge resident Gerald Norton, a retired manufacturing administrator, said new information he has learned about the tax has made him less likely to support it this time around. Though Norton supported the tax in November he said he might vote against it this June.

"The more I've learned about the tax, the more I've got to feeling a lot of local people feel put upon by the growth rate," Norton said. "I don't feel the need for it (the tax) if growth hasn't taken care of itself."

Police Chief Mike Mayberry said to maintain quality of life, he needs to get ahead of the growth curve as Henderson becomes an urban center in its own right and attracts larger numbers of daily visitors. He has always maintained about one police officer for every 1,000 residents, as is the case currently. But to effectively police a larger city he will need more police officers per 1,000 people, Mayberry said.

The Henderson Police Department employs 205 police officers to serve a population estimated at more than 205,000.

"The city grew at a rate of 1,800 people per month last year," Mayberry said. "To keep up with that rate of growth we'd need to hire 27 officers a year just to keep up. And that's not even playing catch up."

In recent years, response times for both police and fire have slowed to dangerous levels, chiefs for both deparments say.

Councilman Jack Clark, who works as a Metro detective, warned that if voters don't support the new tax the damage to the city could be irrevocable.

"If you can show me one community that has let its policing falter and then got it back, then I will vote against this initiative," Clark said. "But you can't. You can't get it back, ladies and gentlemen."

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