Monroe mulls sales tax increase
Published 12:01 am Tuesday, May 17, 2011
MONROE — The city’s police department isn’t able to do all of what it did a few years ago.
Police Chief Tim Quenzer would like to remedy that by asking voters to pass a sales tax hike to rehire two laid off police officers and replace equipment, such as patrol vehicles.
“The biggest h
it we’ve taken is our ability to be proactive on traffic enforcement and suspicious activity,” said Debbie Willis, a police bureau director. “Our time is spent more on reacting.”
The Monroe City Council is scheduled Tuesday night to decide whether the matter will be put in front of voters. If
city leaders approve, the matter would likely be on the ballot in November.
The proposal calls for bumping up the sales tax in the city by one-tenth of 1 percent.
Right now, Monroe has one of the lower sales tax rates in Snohomish County, according to the state Department of Revenue. That rate is 8.6 percent, which means people pay $8.60 in tax for every $100 spent.
If voters passed the tax, Monroe shoppers would pay 10 cents more for every $100 spent, or $8.70.
The city expects that would raise around $260,000 annually. That amount would bring the department’s budget up to about where it was in 2008 before the economy crumbled.
Quenzer said a sales tax hike is a fairer way to raise money than a property tax hike, since the majority of people the police deal with are not Monroe residents, according to police statistics.
“Monroe is quite unique,” he said. “We have a lot of transient traffic with three state highways.”
In 2008, the police department spent $5.4 million. Since then, the department has lost about $260,000 from its yearly budget. It’s also lost seven officers — two were laid off and another five vacant positions remain unfilled. That leaves 30 police department employees, including the chief.
“There’s a lot of services we don’t do any more,” the police chief said.
They include checking on people’s homes while they’re on vacation and investigating non-injury accidents that occur on private property, such as grocery store parking lots, Quenzer said.
It’s also taking longer to respond to calls and the city has reduced crime prevention activities and a public education program.
Despite the cutbacks, the police budget went up around 2 percent last year from 2010 due to cost of living hikes for union employees.
One impact the city isn’t factoring in is potential revenue from traffic- enforcement cameras. The city plans to start using three cameras — two at intersections and one at a school zone — in the next one to two months, Willis said.
Similar cameras, albeit more of them, in Lynnwood have generated millions of dollars for that city.
They aren’t counting on any revenue from the cameras because the city isn’t sure how that will pan out, Willis said.
The city of around 17,000 has an overall operating budget this year of $9.8 million.
The police department makes up just about half of the city’s total operating budget.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197; dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Monroe’s police budget
2008: $5,454,567
2009: $5,224,684 -4.21%
2010: $5,122,331 -1.96%
2011: $5,191,716 1.35%
Tuesday’s meeting: The Monroe City Council meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 806 W. Main St.
