COLUMBIA, MO — The Columbia Police Officers’ Association today endorsed a 30-cent increase in the city’s property tax that would raise $6 million and fund 40 new police officers and 15 firefighters.
The tax increase will go to voters on the November ballot.
Although the officers’ group last year called a similar proposal from Mayor Bob McDavid unnecessary, executive director Dale Roberts said it has had a change of heart.
“Now after having time to review this proposal, we think this is a good solution, not just an interim solution to provide better police services to the community,” Roberts said.
City Council voted unanimously on Aug. 4 to put the tax on the ballot. The city’s existing property tax is 41 cents. The tax increase would cost the owner of a $200,000 home an extra $114 per year.
Roberts said the council has found the “right balance between what the police need and what the public will support.”
The proposal would phase in the new hires by about eight police officers in each of the next five years. New hires must be recruited and trained, and the Police Department has limited capacity to bring in more officers at any one time.
Second Ward Councilman Michael Trapp said he supports the tax because Columbia has 70 percent fewer police than normal for a city of its size. There are 165 officers on the Columbia force, and the city has a population of more than 110,000.
“Before we were under the impression that we could hire new police instead of pay officers time and a half for overtime, but it turns out that was not the case,” Trapp said.
The police department often has faced situations in which every officer is on a 911 call, known as status zero. This leads to longer waiting periods for police to respond to emergencies and limits their ability to do more proactive community policing and build relationships and trust with residents, City Manager Mike Matthes said in a July 21 report to the city council.
Mayor Bob McDavid has talked with several police officers about the staffing shortage in the department.
“It is pretty clear that they are understaffed,” McDavid said. “The understaffing affects every aspect of their jobs and working conditions, and we can’t have the patrol officers just going from one 911 call to another.”
McDavid said Columbia has a relatively small property tax base to begin with and that the per capita staffing of the police and fire departments has declined by 12 percent since 2006 due to the loss of sales tax revenue from e-commerce.
Roberts said he is “cautiously optimistic” the sales tax will pass in November.
“No one likes paying more taxes, but when you look at preserving property values if we don’t pass the tax, the hidden cost of more crime will be weaker property values and higher homeowners’ insurance costs,” he said.
Matthes’ report also tried to make the case for additional firefighters. Matthes said limited staffing and the growth of the city have caused the number of calls outside a four-minute response zone to increase from 8.5 percent in 2009 to 12.6 percent in 2013.
Trapp said he knows of no organized opposition to the tax.
However, McDavid expects the property tax will be a political fight.
“I understand how daunting it will be to increase property taxes in this town,” he said.
A campaign committee headed by Karen Taylor, the executive vice president of the Boone County National Bank and founder of the community organization “Keep Columbia Safe,” will be in charge of the campaign to support the ballot initiative.
Supervising editor is Bailey Otto.