It is important to understand countywide impacts relative to the vote on the city of Vancouver’s Proposition 4, which would fund additional city police officers.
I am an advocate of voters knowing the total cost of a proposition before making their decision on it, although this letter is factual and I won’t hint how I’m going to vote. However, as I write here with information on the large total taxpayer costs associated with Prop. 4, be assured that as an individual I am supportive of our cities’ police and our county’s sheriff, and we all know the many reasons why increasing the numbers of law enforcement officers brings positive results for a community.
Prop. 4, if approved by voters, will add up to 80 sworn police officers and up to 36 nonsworn police positions and a traffic enforcement camera program. To fund this, voters would be approving what is called a “levy lid lift,” or increase in property taxes, of 41 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation. That translates to about $205 per year in additional taxes in the first year on a home assessed at $500,000.
Why have a levy lid lift? Our state Constitution limits the regular tax rate increase to 1 percent of market value. To go above that amount, as needed to fund 80 sworn officers, voters would have to lift the 1 percent “lid.” According to the city, the levy lid lift would authorize a 5 percent annual levy increase for six years. In the first year, Prop. 4 would raise about $15.5 million, and by 2030, approximately $36 million annually.
Some people both “pro” and “con” assume that Prop. 4 costs stop there, but they don’t.
Countywide implications go beyond the basic new city taxes cited above and add another layer of cost increases for Superior Court, District Court, Juvenile Court, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Public Defense, Clerk’s Office and the Clark County Jail. Scores of additional judges, attorneys, correctional officers, detention officers, prison guards, administrative staff, etc., would be needed to support the work of so many additional city police. Cities now contribute minimal funding for these $89.5 million countywide law and justice services. They pay nothing toward individuals charged with felonies, yet over 90 percent of the county’s jail population are felons.
The county would become a bottleneck for the additional officers to be able to do their jobs if countywide increases weren’t made. Even at current levels, countywide services are not sustainable. It is clear that with passage of Prop. 4, authorizing additional officers in the city of Vancouver, plus the additional deputies likely to be requested by the sheriff’s office, and additional taxes for countywide services would be essential and would be requested in the February election.
Preliminary analyses by representatives in the Law and Justice Council and by county finance estimate an additional increase of countywide costs of over $31 million needed by 2030.
With passage of the city’s levy lid lift, plus the countywide increases to support the city’s new officers, and soon additional sheriff’s officers if approved by the county council, plus countywide increases to support the sheriff’s new officers, property taxes within five years could very well increase by $1,000 per year on a Vancouver home assessed at $500,000.
For information from Clark County, you can listen to council meetings online at https://tinyurl.com/57hr47fd. Total cost estimates are preliminary, as they are in this letter.
Karen Dill Bowerman is a Vancouver resident and Clark County councilor.
