By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter says the new half-cent police sales tax will take a while to take effect.
St. Joseph voters November 8th gave 70% approval to the tax expected to raise $5.5 million a year to pay for officer salary increases.
Carter says the money will begin coming into the city in April, just in time to fund an agreement the city reached with the Fraternal Order of Police.
“We implemented some pay increases that went into effect on October 1st. This ensures that those pay increases can remain stable and that we can keep our officers on the pay plan that was agreed to back in September,” Carter tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “That pay plan is going to ensure that they get consistent increases over time.”
The City of St. Joseph has given notice to the Missouri Department of Revenue about the voter-approved increase in the city sales tax. It is expected to take the department about one calendar quarter to implement the new tax. Collection by St. Joseph retailers should begin in April with the city seeing the first proceeds in June.
Carter says voter approval of the tax helps correct a glaring weakness.
“We’ve gone through a period with our pay where we’ve lost officers to other departments and we’re now in a situation where we can go get those folks back,” according to Carter. “We’re in a strong position to go recruit folks from other departments.”
The St. Joseph City Council and the Fraternal Order of Police reached agreement on the pay plan that raises starting salaries to $49,000 a year. It also provides enough money for three percent annual pay hikes.
St. Joseph will recruit graduates from the Law Enforcement Academy at Missouri Western State University as well as promising criminal justice graduates from area colleges. The city will also target the recruitment of experienced officers.
“It gives us that ability to go out and recruit from other departments or be competitive against other departments, but it’s also going to open the door for us to possibly reach out and try to get some of our folks back who maybe have gone into different career fields just because of financial implications,” Carter says.
The St. Joseph Police Department has more than 20 vacancies. The city is authorized to have 138 commissioned officers.