Public safety tax Voters throughout the county – cities and towns as well as unincorporated areas – will be asked to renew a one-tenth of 1 percent addition to state and local sales taxes to help pay for law enforcement services. The tax was first added in 2004, when voters approved an increase that would be used partly for an emergency communications system for many jurisdictions. That system was never purchased, and the money has been used instead for a variety of law enforcement expenses, including prosecutors, public defenders, jail expenses and deputies or police officers. In the last two years, it absorbed a significant chunk of sheriff’s department overtime.