How will we pay for more law officers?

I had to shake my head while reading the article in the Nov. 17 Herald about the Citizens for A Safe Snohomish County’s demand for 47 more deputies, particularly when I started reading some of the names of the group’s leaders, including Jeff “Voodoo Economics II” Sax. During his campaign I wrote to him twice, asking him how he proposed to add all of these deputies without raising taxes, given that the total cost of such an increase is estimated to come to over $8 million. He never bothered to answer, which tells me that A) he did not have a clue as to how; B) he realized full well that it could not be done but did not want to blow his platform, or C) he had a plan but did not feel that it was important to run it past the voters. So I am still waiting to hear any ideas on how, but all I am hearing is threats from one of the members about this group bringing a lawsuit to force the county to do their bidding.

I have a suggestion for them. Since I am guessing that every last one of them voted for Initiative 747 they should, under the terms of that initiative, begin the process of putting this request on a ballot that all of the citizens of the county could vote on. After all, an expense of this magnitude will surely require more than a 1 percent tax increase. I would be interested to see whether my fellow Snohomish residents, many of them facing unemployment, would be willing to come up with another $8.5 million to add deputies, given that 68 percent of the county’s budget is already going to law enforcement – which includes 35 new deputies already added in the past four years. The county’s proposed budget for next year includes an additional five deputies.

There are many other pressing needs that this county will have to address, and the budget will be tight already, since the 1 percent allowable increase in taxes does not even keep up with inflation, much less the growth that Snohomish County is experiencing. In my estimation, we may just have to settle for five for the time being.

How about it? Does this group have any real solutions, or would they rather push your weight around?

Snohomish