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    • WF City councillors discuss tax increases in light of looming public safety crisis
    Idaho

    WF City councillors discuss tax increases in light of looming public safety crisis

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    Although the budget proposal includes a tax cut for Wichita Falls residents, City Council members began discussing possible tax increases Tuesday after Wichita Falls police officers passionately asked for higher salaries.

    City councillors met for a special session to discuss a new budget that will take effect on October 1.

    The draft budget calls for a general salary increase of 4 percent for city employees.

    But Sergeant John Spragins, a representative of the Wichita Falls Police Officers Association, said this is not enough to save Wichita Falls from a public safety crisis.

    “We are putting this problem off and that will have dire consequences,” Spragins said.

    He said Wichita Falls has the lowest police salaries on a list of cities the city government uses for its budget comparison.

    “This train is going down the tracks and it’s going to crash,” Spragins said.

    He said other Texas cities of similar size have significantly surpassed Wichita Falls in police salaries.

    “We can fix this. We can give them 16 or 17 percent (raises). It might require some tax increase,” he said.

    “The costs for the police are unrealistic,” said police chief Manuel Borrego.

    He said the starting salary for police officers in similar Texas cities is about $70,000 a year, about $10,000 more than in Wichita Falls.

    “If we don’t have the pay that other cities have, they won’t come,” said Borrego, whose department is currently short about 20 officers.

    “We can’t keep lowering tax rates and not have money to get these people where they need to go,” said City Councilman Jeff Browning. “Nobody wants to say it – I say tax increases.”

    “I agree with you,” said Councilman Tom Taylor.

    “Cutting the tax rate to save $500,000 on a $200 million budget is kind of stupid,” said City Councilor Bobby Whiteley.

    City Councilman Michael Smith said if Wichita Falls doesn’t do something now, it will cost even more later. He also noted that the cities Wichita Falls is being compared to are growing.

    “And we are not growing,” he said.

    City Manager Darron Leiker described the dilemma as an economic development problem.

    “We need to grow the community. That’s why we’re in last place compared to many other cities,” he said.

    According to Leiker, Wichita Falls ranks last in terms of the amount of tax revenue collected.

    State law limits how much local governments can raise their tax rates. Cities can increase their rates by up to 3.5 percent annually before a referendum is automatically required. The deadline for doing so has already passed for the next fiscal year.

    City councilors could consider raising the tax rate to just under 3.5 percent before passing the budget in September, but city finance officer Stephen Calvert said that would only raise a little more than half a million dollars.

    Mayor Tim Short said the city could use some of the $4 million earmarked for savings to increase police salaries.

    “Something has to be done. If this is going to be the growing, thriving community that we all want to live in, we have to do something for our public safety people,” Short said.

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    Madoc Meredith
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