Does Salisbury Need A Tax Increase? – 07042901

April 29, 2007 by Cato  
Filed under Fiscal Policy, Maryland, Public Safety, Salisbury Politics, Taxes

Salisbury Police Chief Alan Webster is pimping out his own officers to keep his political bosses happy. First we saw the shameless display of the chief at last Monday’s city council meeting. Webster violated the city’s charter by speaking on a budget issue without an explicit invitation from the city council. In addition we saw Webster fill the front row of seats with fine, young officers all pressed and dressed to make an impression. This Saturday we witnessed Webster sending officers to harass some of the folks at the Salisbury Festival who were collecting signatures to take Mayor Barrie Tilghman’s tax increase to referendum.

I don’t blame the officers. Webster has filled their ears with a series of lies and these fine men and women don’t know any better. They are convinced that they will never get their pay raise without Barrie’s big tax increase. Unfortunately, if they allow themselves to be swayed by Barrie’s and Websters propaganda they may get a modest increase this year, but they will NEVER receive the pay parity that they are seeking.

By listening to a series of lies from the GOB, the officers are losing sight of what they were seeking to begin with. Barrie Tilghman is asking for a 15% ($0.11 / $100) increase in property taxes. That is over $2.42 million. The cost of the Mayor’s proposed pay raise for police is $0.503 million. Barrie Tilghman (and her three lackeys on council) is not raising taxes to pay police, she’s raising taxes to finance a series of pay raises for her lackeys in city government. She’s raising taxes to finance a series of wasteful projects like increased spending at the zoo. I’m sure that Salisbury police and fire (raises for firefighters were struck from the budget) personnel will be thrilled to find out that zoo animals are more important to Barrie Tilghman, Louise Smith, Gary Comegys and Shanie Shields than our public safety personnel.

For many of us who were heavily involved in this year’s city council races one of the top issues in the campaign was bringing the pay of our public safety personnel to something close to parity. No responsible party ever said that this would be done in one year. No responsible party said that it could be done without any increase in taxes. What I can promise is that IF property taxes rise 15% for FY 2008 (and only a fraction of that revenue will go to cops), when police demand more in FY 2009 or FY 2010 there will be no money to fund those pay increases. There will be no political will on the part of the Mayor or council to fund such an increase. Even if there was such a will, taxpayers would stage a revolt to stop such an increase.

I can also guarantee that they won’t be seeing Chief Webster standing up in front of the council demanding such a raise. Officers need to remember that when a raise was proposed last year their own chief had a little hissy fit because the raise would not include one for himself. Non-entry level officers should also note that the proposed budget’s COLA raise for the Chief will be far more than they will be receiving in total pay increase (under the Mayor’s plan).

The sensible, fiscally prudent way to handle public safety pay increases is to cut the wasteful spending out of the Mayor’s budget and use the cost savings to fund public safety increases. That means raises for police and fire personnel. There needs to be a publicly stated plan as to how public safety raises will budgeted each year and what the intermediate term goal is regarding public safety pay grades.

If taxes need to go up to fund public safety increases I don’t believe that the public will be too upset. To raise taxes by a large amount when it is not necessary will not produce long term good will for the Mayor, Council or our public safety personnel. If our police officers are really interested in reaching something that approaches parity they need to stop buying the Mayor / Webster propaganda. If Chief Webster was truly interested in the best interest of his officers he would stop pimping them out for the Mayor.

Technorati Tags: Salisbury, politics, salisburypolitics, publicsafety, police, ChiefWebster, BarrieTilghman, LouiseSmith, GaryComegys, ShanieShields, fiscalpolicy, taxation, propertytaxes, taxincrease, governmentspending, wastefulspending