By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph voters decide a half-cent sales tax issue today, put on the ballot by the city council to pay for police officer pay hikes.
Co-chair J. L. Robertson with the Citizens for Our Police, Our City Committee says the $5.5 million the tax is expected to raise annually will go to recruit and retain police officers.
“Our pay is almost $7,000 under what the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department makes,” Robertson tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “We are losing policemen, trained policemen, to other communities around the area. And, we’re having an under-ability to recruit qualified, good policemen.”
The issue on the ballot will pay for an agreement the city made with the Fraternal Order of Police after St. Joseph officers protested low pay during a picket in front of city hall.
Robertson contends passage of the measure will improve safety in St. Joseph and might help prevent problems within St. Joseph schools. At present, there are six police officers assigned to the St. Joseph School District. Robertson says the city doesn’t have the money to fund all eight officer positions designated for the schools.
Robertson says school police officers make a big difference.
“They’re creating relationships with the students. They’re creating relationships with the administration and they have a presence there,” according to Robertson. “Does that stop a school shooting? I don’t know. But I think it would certainly help that initiative.”
Robertson says the money through the sales tax increase will allow the city to increase starting police pay and give annual pay raises.
“We must, we must have the ability to recruit policemen,” Robertson says. “We must have the ability to retain these policemen.”
The agreement worked out between the city and the FOP will raise starting police officer pay to $49,000 with a promise to increase wages by 3% annually. The tax has a 20-year sunset clause.
St. Joseph is authorized to have 138 commissioned officers. The St. Joseph Police Department has 23 vacancies.
Click HERE for more on the ballot initiative.