Public Safety Tax????

[MH2010]

I was reading the Tulsa World today and found the opinion article concerning the idea of a public safety tax written by Jan Callan.  In the article she spoke about a public safety tax that would expand the department by 25%.

"As much as we loathe the word "tax," Tulsans would do well to consider a proposition to upgrade law enforcement, to expand it by 25
percent, especially in the drug enforcement
area."

I'm just curious about everyone's thoughts on the matter.

[inteller]

no.  There are plenty of taxes being levied right now that should go to police and roads....start with those.

[RecycleMichael]

I would generally be in favor of a dedicated sales tax to public safety. I would need more information before I would completely got on board.

I would think that somewhere between the one quarter cent that Albuquerque charges and the three quarter cent that Oklahoma City charges would be supported by most voters.

About one third of the sales tax revenue is already going to public safety in Tulsa's budget. That includes Police, Fire, Telecommunications, Emergency Management and EMSA.

Dedicating funding would be just formalizing that revenue/expense process.

[carltonplace]

I'm not fond of the idea. It feels like a fear based reaction to a problem that is not nearly as systemic as it is portrayed to be. How much money does TPD need to keep its customers safe? What is the annual budget and how far below that budget are we now? Where does Tulsa stand in public safety spending against comparably sized cities? What do we need to buy that will make us safe- more officers? more helicopters? a couple of tanks?

If we answer these questions and find ourselves lacking, then we need to take another look at the city's budget and the people writing it, not run amuck and approve another tax increase.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by carltonplace

I'm not fond of the idea. It feels like a fear based reaction to a problem that is not nearly as systemic as it is portrayed to be. How much money does TPD need to keep its customers safe? What is the annual budget and how far below that budget are we now? Where does Tulsa stand in public safety spending against comparably sized cities? What do we need to buy that will make us safe- more officers? more helicopters? a couple of tanks?

If we answer these questions and find ourselves lacking, then we need to take another look at the city's budget and the people writing it, not run amuck and approve another tax increase.

actually if they would ground the helicopters that would save a lot of money right there.  those things are nothing but a nuisance.

[patric]

quote:
"As much as we loathe the word "tax," Tulsans would do well to consider a proposition to upgrade law enforcement, to expand it by 25 percent, especially in the drug enforcement area."

A new tax on the "War on Drugs" would be foolish, but some creative funding for basic fire and police protection warrants further discussion.

We would do well to identify what activities would be considered "basic" as opposed to "extraneous".
For instance, is it more effective to buy police   front-wheel drive vehicles or motorcycles if you only had so much to spend?

And closer to my area of study, could certain groups of streetlighting that only provide the illusion of safety have their monies diverted to  providing real safety (through the hiring of more patrolmen or better pay)?  As is, we already spend millions from our general fund annually subsidizing AEP's off-peak power generation, when some of that money could be put to better use by police and fire.

In the long run, any discussion of a new tax is bound to draw sharp criticism of how the monies we already have are being (mis)spent.