Public safety tax gets second chance at polls

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, May 30, 2001 | 10:32 a.m.

Henderson's nationally recognized public parks would likely be the first city services to incur significant funding cuts if voters reject a multimillion-dollar public safety tax initiative, Councilman Steve Kirk said Tuesday.

"We will not allow our community to suffer in the area of public safety. So in this ballot question we're asking people to prioritize. Are we going to continue to put cops on the street? Yes. But at what price?" Kirk said.

If the tax hike is defeated Tuesday, as it was in November, and cuts have to be made, Kirk said, "The one program that's obvious, that sits out like a beacon, is parks."

The tax initiative would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $84 annually for the next 30 years and would raise a projected $850 million. That would pay the salaries of 166 additional police officers, 30 firefighters/paramedics and 41 support staff members. The new personnel would be hired over seven years.

Voters narrowly rejected the same initiative in November by 864 votes, or less than 1 percent of votes cast.

Kirk, like other city officials, said he has been expecting a low voter turnout. A mayoral, City Council and judge race were decided in the April primary. That leaves just three tax initiatives to bring voters to the polls for the general election.

As of Monday night, about 5,500 Henderson residents had cast early ballots on the public safety tax initiative -- nearly double the number of votes cast during early voting for the primary election. Early voting continues through Friday.

After a "disconcerting" 8 percent turnout in April, Henderson City Clerk Monica Simmons said she is predicting that closer to 20 percent of registered voters will go to polls for the general election.

"When it impacts people's pocketbooks, they come out. It's obviously bringing them out," Simmons said.

Of the people voting Tuesday at the Galleria Mall at Sunset, several said they opposed the initiative.

A 39-year-old stay-at-home mom who declined to give her name said she wasn't opposed to adding more police and fire personnel. But she said another property tax wasn't the most equitable way to raise money.

"Homeowners are constantly being penalized through property taxes," she said. "The city ought to have a flat tax or a tax on a driver's license where we know everyone is paying."

Henderson's many retired residents, who are living on fixed incomes, have echoed that sentiment in recent months, complaining that with the rising costs of gasoline and electricity they cannot afford another tax.

But Green Valley resident Bob Crowley, a retired dye cutter who moved to Henderson 10 years ago from California, said he voted for the initiative in November. He said he voted for it again Tuesday.

"It's a must with the growth," Crowley said. "We don't have a problem in our neighborhood, but there are others that you see on the news that do."

Regina Carroll, another Green Valley resident, said the added costs were easy to justify.

A mother of three, she said, "We do need more police and more firefighters. Every day I go down the street there's more houses and more apartments."

Henderson officials have gone out of their way to stump for the initiative, holding seven neighborhood meetings to discuss issues with residents. Those meetings have attracted only minimal interest, despite concerns aired by officials that residents didn't have enough information to make an informed vote in November.

Even so, Kirk said the question he has answered most often is why hasn't growth paid for growth?

"The bottom line, as far as public safety, is that growth is paying for growth," Kirk said.

Since 1988, the last time the city requested additional taxes to pay for fire and police personnel, the city has maintained about one officer for every 1,000 residents. The police force includes just more than 200 sworn officers to support a city with a population estimated at more than 205,000.

The national average is closer to 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents. With the new hires, the city would have closer to 1.5 officers for every 1,000 residents.

"The pressures on police, the stresses, are different than they were when we were a town of 50,000," Kirk said. "What we're saying is that we need the extra help to get ahead of the curve."