Crime Check closer to county ballot
If citizens want Crime Check, they’ll have to tax themselves, Spokane City Council members said Monday night.
The council voted to endorse a second attempt at passing a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax to pay for emergency communications equipment and Crime Check, the 24-hour countywide crime reporting center that was discontinued because of city budget cuts a few years back.
The Spokane County Commission has until March 29 to decide if the tax will make the May 20 ballot. Commissioners have said they wouldn’t ask for the money unless city leaders endorse the concept.
Many smaller cities already have done so. Spokane Valley, however, has not made a final recommendation.
Last year voters narrowly rejected the tax. Critics, such as former county Commissioners John Roskelley and Kate McCaslin, said leaders could use money raised from another public safety tax passed a few years ago. They also criticized a lack of a sunset on the tax.
In response, county leaders have proposed that the May ballot include a provision for the tax to expire in 10 years. They say using existing tax money would mean severe cuts in important public safety services and likely job cuts.
Most of the $8 million raised annually would pay for communications equipment to meet new Federal Communications Commission requirements that will be enforced starting in 2013 and allow a better flow of information among policing and firefighting agencies, officials say.
“Communication incompatibility means people die,” said Spokane City Council President Joe Shogan. “Right now we have agencies that can’t talk to each other.”
About $1.2 million would pay for a return to 24-hour crime reporting. Under the proposal, cities and the county would continue to pay $800,000 – the amount they pay for the current system, which operates 12 hours a day.
Councilman Bob Apple was the lone vote against the city’s endorsement of the ballot. He said the tax should pay the full cost of the 24-hour reporting system. Apple also said the city already is making progress on needed communications upgrades.
“The county is going to end up with all the assets,” Apple said.
But Councilman Steve Corker said finding resources to cover the $45 million cost of the equipment that will be used by cities, the county, fire districts and other agencies is essential to providing public safety.
“I don’t want to get into turf wars over something so basic,” Corker said. “I can’t think of anything more important than having this communication system.”
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and others have speculated that the tax failed in November because the measure didn’t mention Crime Check by name. “Crime Check” is included in the ballot language proposed for May.