SPOKANE, Wash. — The city council voted to send Proposition 1 to voters in Dec.
Since then, Mayor David Condon has come out in opposition of the proposition.
Next week, Spokane voters will decide if taxes will be raised to support city fire and police departments. City of Spokane's Proposition 1 is asking voters for an estimated $5.8 million. It would add a 30-cent tax per $1,000 of assessed property value starting in 2020. For example, it would be $60 for someone who owns a $200,000 home.
Councilmember Lori Kinnear said the money generated from Prop 1 would go toward adding 20 police officers to the department and other community policing programs.
The proposition includes five downtown officers and a sergeant, two homeless outreach and behavioral health unit officers, three property crime detectives, two neighborhood resource officers and other positions.
Kinnear said research shows there is a target number of police officers and staff for cities the size of Spokane and 20 more personnel will meet that target number.
"We need that number to be proactively policing instead of reactively policing and if people are concerned about crime then this is something they will vote for,” Kinnear said.
When the city landed FEMA’s SAFER grant, they brought on 48 firefighters. Many of these firefighters are part of the Alternative Response Unit program. ARU are units that respond to incidents where the big trucks are not required. The SAFER grants funding ends at the end of the year. Through Prop 1, 30 of those firefighters would be retained.
"We are so reliant on sales tax, if we have a recession and we start to lose sales tax, people are going to be laid off, so we want to make sure we level that out,” Kinnear said. "It's so people can decide, if it’s too much then we will have to go back, but I am not confident that we can because that's a lot of money to come up with."
Mayor David Condon sees is differently. He said the council and city administrators should take more time to find other funding options.
"I am concerned that we have not put the right package together. We haven't looked at all opportunities in what the benefits to our citizens are, so financially especially in the out years is problematic,” Condon said.
Condon said he is concerned there has not been enough consideration of the cost of equipment and support staff to increase the number police and firefighters.
He adds it could be useful to look at current staffing and future opening, such as retirements. So there may not be a need to lay off all the firefighters who were hired with federal grant money.
"If the analysis shows we need to add some of these other position and these programs then we need to come together and offer that to our citizens in August or November,” Condon said.
Election Day is Feb. 12. Ballots went out between Jan. 23-25. Feb. 4 is the voter registration deadline for unregistered voters (in person at Election Office only).