MORE COPS BILL: Police deal with tax setback - News

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Jun. 15, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MORE COPS BILL: Police deal with tax setback

Increase would have funded more officers

By BRIAN HAYNES
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Nevada Legislature

Las Vegas police recruits perform drills in March at the Training Academy on Cheyenne Avenue. With a sales tax passed in 2005, police agencies hired more than 600 new officers.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Three months ago, the leaders of the Las Vegas Valley's three largest police forces sat side-by-side in a Carson City hearing room and implored lawmakers to raise the county sales tax again to fund more officers.

With the first half of the sales tax passed in the 2005 legislative session, the agencies had hired more than 600 new cops and brought crime down across Southern Nevada, the top cops told the state Senate Taxation Committee.

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Now they wanted the second half of the More Cops tax to continue their crime-fighting success.

The committee members agreed and passed Senate Bill 202 after amending it to split the quarter-cent sales tax increase and delaying collection until mid-2011. But the bill moved to the Senate Finance Committee and died without further action.

"I'm not happy about it," Sheriff Doug Gillespie said. "I don't think we got a fair shake. I would have liked to see it go to a vote" on the Senate floor.

Passage of the bill would have allowed local police departments to start hiring more officers in early 2012. Without it, the agencies must rely on their local governments to fund new police positions.

When the More Cops tax initiative went before county voters in 2004, then-Sheriff Bill Young argued it was necessary because local governments hadn't hired enough officers to keep up with Southern Nevada's explosive population growth.

Voters narrowly approved the half-cent tax increase, and the 2005 Legislature put it into law, but only after cutting it in half and requiring police leaders to show how they were using the money before approving the second half.

Going into this year's session, Gillespie expected the dismal economy to be an obstacle to approval of the second half of the tax, yet he felt splitting and delaying the tax increase would be enough to win passage.

But when state lawmakers raised sales taxes and other levies as part of their plan to plug a $3 billion shortfall in the state budget, the More Cops tax was sacrificed.

"The Legislature thought there was only so much we can put on the taxpayer at one time," said David Kallas, lobbyist for the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents the Metropolitan Police Department's roughly 2,500 rank-and-file police officers.

"We were just a victim of circumstance ... but it's a reality we all have to deal with," Kallas said.

State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said the police leaders justified the second half of the tax, but lawmakers felt the More Cops sales tax on top of the other tax increases would be "too much to bear" for county residents.

"Metro always knew it was contingent on the kind of sales tax we had to issue," he said.

Even though the More Cops tax initiative was voter-approved, "any vote is not necessarily an ironclad thing, because things change," Coffin said.

He pointed out that if the Legislature passes the tax increase during the 2011 session, the tax collection could begin in mid-2011, just as it would have under the bill that died this year.

"I'm sure it will be enacted," Coffin said. "It's just a matter of when."

Gillespie had argued that the tax was approved by voters, and recent polling by him and the Review-Journal showed strong support for raising the sales tax to pay for more police officers. But the sheriff said he "never really got what I considered to be a level of support" from the legislative leadership.

"I saw folks coming up with reasons not to enable the tax, other than reasons it should be enabled," he said.

Gillespie said he plans on spending more time in Carson City during the 2011 session to lobby for the sales tax with a "more vigorous campaign."

"It's a shame that the sheriff of Clark County has to be up there to push the will of the people. If that's what needs to be done, that's what I'm going to do."

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Adolf Gillespie wrote on June 17, 2009 10:00 PM: This is adolf Gillespie stop posting negative comments about my department!! Its mine all mine!! Hey Shrek wrote on June 15, 2009 10:00 PM: I say this: "Require all residents & law abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons. At minimum, EVERY home must have a gun. . . Then turn around and FIRE 75% of the cops now on the street. Leave just enough Policemen on the payroll to come and pick up the bodies of the burglars and muggers (and of course take the mandatory police report) Maybe if we fire enough of the 'socialist' policemen & fireman, we can have enough taxpayer money to provide us a taxpayers without health insurance a real benefit: 'socialist' doctors. Please Pres. Obama, if you do nothing else in this term, get us 'socialist' doctors. We already have 'socialist firemen, policemen, school teachers, librarians & government employees. Mike wrote on June 15, 2009 09:00 PM: Helen needs a larger font, so she can out-shout her imitators... m wrote on June 15, 2009 07:42 PM: Officers need to offer MORE speeding tickets, not less. No need for a tax increase. I'm tired of driving the speed limit on 215, Hacienda, Trop, Flamingo, Jones, etc. and getting passed like I'm standing still. Jen: no speeding means no tickets. John wrote on June 15, 2009 06:37 PM: Why do only Metro, North Town and Hendertucky get money from the more cops tax? We need more DA's to prosecute cases, more judges, more public defenders, more prisons, more CO's and more PAROLE officers. Otherwise we have a system like we do now where people get arrested over and over but their case gets plead out for nothing and they don't get any real punishment. HELEN WEILS wrote on June 15, 2009 06:19 PM: TO VEGAS VET: I'VE CALLED THE POLICE ON A FEW OCCASSIONS. ALL OF THE CALLS WERE WORTHLESS AND NOTHING WAS DONE. THE FIRST WAS WHEN MY CAR WAS VANDALIZED. "COME DOWN TO THE POLICE STATION AND MAKE A REPORT" THE SECOND WHEN MY HOME WAS BURGLARIZED. "COME DOWN TO THE POLICE STATION AND MAKE A REPORT" THE THIRD WAS WHEN MY STORE WAS BURGLARIZED. I HAD A COP COME OUT WHO WROTE A REPORT WHILE JAWING WITH HIS BUDDIES ON THE RADIO LAUGHING AND LISTENING TO RADIO CALLS. NOTHING WAS DONE. THEN THERE WAS THE TIME THAT A SPEEDER RAN INTO MY HUSBAND. NOTHING WAS DONE. THEN THERE WAS THE TIME THAT I WAS CALLED TO THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT WHERE ONE OF MY EMPLOYEES HAD PLOWED INTO A CAR. WE WAITED FOR 3 HOURS FOR THE COP TO SHOW UP TO MAKE A REPORT. THEN THERE WAS ONE TIME THAT MY BUSINES WAS RENTED FOR A TEEN BIRTHDAY PARTY. IT WAS PROPERLY GUARDED, NO LIQUOR AND ABOUT 150 KIDS. 6 COP CARS SHOWED UP IN THE PARKING LOT JUST TO LET US "FEEL THEIR PRESENCE". I KNOW COPS, MY BEST FRIEND WAS MARRIED TO ONE. HE HAD MAJOR FIDELITY ISSUES. HANGING WITH HOOKERS. ANOTHER ONE FOR A NEIGHBOR, HAD MAJOR ISSUES, HANGING WITH HOOKERS. I'M NOT SAYING THAT ALL COPS ARE BAD, AND I'M NOT SAYING THAT WE DON'T NEED COPS. WHAT I'M SAYING IS COPS BY AND LARGE HAVE ALIENATED THE GENERAL PUBLIC. JUST TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE VIDEOS OF COPS COMING OUT. GRABBING PEOPLE BY THE THROAT, SHOOTING A MOTHER IN FRONT OF HER CHILDREN WHEN SHE WAS DOWN ON HER KNEES. THEN COPS LIKE PERKINS WHO BLATENTLY VIOLATED FEDERAL LAW WHILE ON THE LEGISLATURE AND HANDLING FEDERAL FUNDS. HE IGNORED IT ALL AND LAUGHED IT OFF. OR THE COP THAT KILLED 4 PEOPLE AND SAID Two Cents wrote on June 15, 2009 05:08 PM: I don't live in las vegas but visit a least five times a year. I've also read that las vegas is the fourth most dangerous city to live in america. Everywhere I drive I see bars on windows and gated communities. reduction of the police force will not make you any safer or bring the tourist dollar to town. Some of the stats we have on crime involve people that do not live here. Our visitor volume is higher than for other towns this size and the crime stats reflect that. If there is a murder of say a girlfriend/boyfriend, and they are from say, Arizona, that still is a Nevada statistic. If it happens here, it is reflected here and added to our crime stats so sometimes the numbers are really skewed. Thats what I was getting at with my previous post. Apartments who refuse to do background checks should be required to hire their own security at their own expense thereby freeing up Metro. I have a lot of ideas as do the others who posted below. We hope someone hears us. I work in a hotel and feel safe. Please come again and have a great time! Can't wait to see you, we love visitors on the strip (and downtown!) :) wrote on June 15, 2009 04:45 PM: I think the law enforcement agencies in this county do an outstanding job and deserve every red cent they've earned. One thing I do not understand though, is why there are so many damn departments in this county. Metro, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, School Police, Park Police, Henderson Marshals, North Las Vegas Marshals, Las Vegas Marshals, County Marshals, Bailiffs, Constables, Taxi Authority, Highway Patrol, Parols and Probation, and on and on and on. Combine all of these departments, keep the officers patrolling their areas (taxis, parks, schools, etc.) One command staff unit to run the department. Problem solved. Two Cents wrote on June 15, 2009 04:38 PM: I was just thinking about this issue. I live close (as well as do alot of us) to apartments that rent to undocumented people. There are ALWAYS police in this area. Why not make it a law that if apartments refuse to rent to decent, legal people then they can hire a certain amount of private security and stop using METRO for their security. This goes for the older apartments as well. I understand the need for low income housing that is safe. As long as background checks are not required for every adult living in these apartments we will have problems. Isn't there a law (fire hazard) pertaining to how many people can occupy these spaces? You wouldn't know it by driving by. Police are police and NOT security for apartment buildings. Sorry this is long. Maybe it's just the few of us that not only see the abuse by metro but the abuse by "cheap" business and apartment owners as well. Thanks... Neighborhood Police Watch wrote on June 15, 2009 04:15 PM: I'm not sure who the MORON is who keeps taking peoples posts and changing them and then posting under the same name but you are getting old. I know you have done it to me before and several other people and now you are doing it to HELEN WEILS. If you can't come up with anything original or creative to say just crawl back under the rock that you have come out from under! Why don't you post under your real name so we can all have a chance to take some well deserved pot shots at you. I'm guessing you are some kind of government employee who can't deal with the fact that the rest of us are tired of paying your over inflated salaries and benefits. Maybe you should go out and get a real job like the rest of us. Go ahead and go on one of your ignorant tirades because we all need some comic relief. METRO ARE OVER PAYED AND UNDER TRAINED. Maybe you can comment on that. Read All Comments