By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph city councilmembers are pushing for support of a half cent tax measure on the November 8th ballot.
The tax measure is estimated to generate 5-point-5 million dollars in revenue to pay for increased police officer salaries.
Councilmember-at-Large Kenton Randolph says the goal of the tax hike is to make St. Joseph a safer place to live, which is a core value of the city council.
"That obviously involves having more police officers on the streets" Randolph tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr.
Randolph also believes the half cent sales tax will help in recruiting more officers.
The St. Joseph City Council put the measure on the November ballot after reaching a pay agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police.
Randolph says it's a major issue, because the police shortage affects whether St. Joseph residents feel safe.
"If people do not feel safe here in St. Joseph, that's not right," Randolph says. "So, they need to feel safe and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that we're policing St. Joseph and we're helping our citizens and folks of St. Joseph feel safe and secure right here in our community."
Randolph says a core value of all the city councilmembers is to make St. Joseph a safer place to live, not only for current citizens but also future ones.
Randolph says every call to the police department matters, and police need the staff to field those calls.
"Every call that comes in I think is important to the person that's making that phone call, and to be a responsible community to help secure their thoughts of either fear or their concern, then rightfully we should be responding to them," Randolph explains.
Randolph says currently it is critically important to bring in more police officers to help field those calls in an appropriate way.