Sales tax increase sought for more cops

Jen Lawson and Jace Radke

Monday, May 24, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

The Metro Police Financial Oversight Committee voted this morning for a ballot initiative that would ask voters to approve a sales tax increase to pay for more officers.

A sales tax increase would be a quarter of a cent for the first four years then a half-cent increase after four years. The increase would last 25 years, Metro's financial director Karen Keller said. The sales tax in Clark County is currently 7.5 percent, so under the Metro proposal it would rise to 7.75 percent for the first four years and then would rise to 8 percent for 21 more years.

Sheriff Bill Young told the committee that he needs the extra money for more police because crime has increased 25 percent in the past two years and if it continues to rise tourism will suffer a major blow.

The way to stop the rising crime rate is to put more officers on the street, Young said.

After getting advice from consultants, Young decided a sales tax increase had a better chance of passing than a property tax increase.

"The chance of that passing is nil," Young said.

"By using sales tax it spreads it out more evenly to everyone including tourists," Young said.

Young estimated that the increase would cost the average Clark County citizen about $12.50 a year, and about $25 a year after it bumps up in the fifth year.

But County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald said she saw a problem with the plan. Sales tax provides an "elastic form of revenue" and if Las Vegas' economy ever suffered a major downturn the sales tax would drop and that would cause significant problems, she warned.

"If we all of a sudden hire a lot of people based on sales tax and the economy goes south we still have to fund those positions," Boggs McDonald said. "I think it's very dangerous."

Boggs McDonald voted against the measure while Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese, Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid and the committee's chairman, Peter Thomas, voted in favor.

The fiscal affairs board was also told this morning that the hiring of Metro Police officers and civilian staffers has kept pace with the growing population of Clark County since 1999, according to an efficiency study.

The study was conducted by the Matrix Consulting Group, a firm hired by Metro to look at the department's productivity.

The study found that while the population of the county has grown about 20 percent over the last four years, Metro increased its number of officers by more than 21 percent and the number of civilian employees by more than 29 percent.

Metro officials say that while they may have been able to keep pace with population growth since 1999, they began the period in an officer shortage that's persisted despite the recent hires.

"We were way behind, and we've never caught up," Young said. "We've never been able to get to the level of two cops per 1000 people that we've been aiming for."

Metro has about 1.7 officers per 1,000 people, less than the national average of 2.5 officers per 1,000 people, Metro spokesman, Sgt. Rick Barela said.

Young said that when the county's tourist population is figured in the actual ratio drops to about 1.5 officers per 1,000.

In response to these shortcomings Young asked the fiscal oversight committee to request that a question be placed on the November ballot asking voters if they want a sales tax increase to pay for additional officers for Metro, Henderson and North Las Vegas Police.

If the question passes, the Legislature would crafts the laws needed to implement it, Young said.