I support the increase in our sales tax rate and the public safety fee. For those who might have forgotten, or never read my ad of Oct. 28, 2017 in The Times, I recommended an alternative to a town property tax – A public safety service fee – for police, paramedics and fire department.
I emailed a copy of it to all the town council members serving at that time. Some of them sent me back their opinions saying it was not a good idea; also they have looked into a fee before and were opposed to it. Amazing! Only 18 months since I paid for my ad and it’s now a great idea.
They are recommending that $150 of the fee goes into the General Fund and $35 to the Environmental Fund. I would like the wording for the $150 fee to say: “It will be put into the General Fund to be used only for the police, paramedics and fire department.” If they don’t clearly designate where the fee is to be spent, they could say we need to use it for more building inspectors, or to hire more people to help with permits and paperwork at the Town Hall, or to enforce our codes, or to fix our roads and all road signage. There is no end to what they will consider “public safety.”
We have been told over and over again that the town needs the money for the revenue shortfall and cost increases in contracts for the police, paramedics and fire department. So why would they oppose the fee being designated and written that way? By reducing the cost of these designated departments by $2,597,400, it automatically leaves more money in the General Fund.
Want to regain citizens’ trust? Designate the fee.
