Another week of budget meetings coming up.  Work session Wednesday night.  We’re currently at a 2 cent increase on the tax rate and the possibility of a 3 cent public safety assesment.  I know that I can’t get additional police and zoning guys if I go with a flat tax rate so I’m leaning towards the two cents but I haven’t worked my way through the 3 cent public safety deal.  What does everyone think?

The way the budget works is this: Every department comes and makes a presentation to the council about their department and the amount of money they need. Staff will also provide a list of things they want but don’t have the money for. If, during (or after) the presentation, a council member wants to review an item (staff/budget/supplemental request) for addition or deletion, that item goes onto the “Open item list”. The open item list is then reviewed during the markup session where the council decides what things from the open item list go into the budget and what dies.

One of the things that I (pretty sure it was me, if not I apologize) placed onto the open item list was a request from the police department for 4 more uniformed police officers. I support this because the police have formed a “Street Crimes” Unit (SCU). The SCU is responsible for stamping out crime in hotspots and can move quickly between them. Their main charge, as I understand it, is quality of life crimes and street level theft and vandalism. They may also be used in an overflow capacity for more serious crimes. I support this concept 100%. So, you might ask, what’s the problem?

Well….currently, the Steet Crimes Unit (SCU) is staffed only if all officers report for duty. This is not normally the case – some are out sick, hurt, deployed to Iraq, training or we may just be short of guys. This being the case, the SCU is hardly ever staffed. Adding 4 officers would allow us to staff the SCU on a more consistent basis.

I’m currently working out how to pay for these guys w/o increasing real estate taxes. This does mean that it will have to come from elsewhere in the budget but I think the money is there. I’ll post again when I have a better idea of what will happen with this. Let me know what you think.