Giving raises to Harrison police and firefighters will be a priority now that voters have approved a half-percent sales and use tax, Mayor Jeff Crockett said.
The starting salary in both departments is about $29,000 a year, he said.
"It's unfortunate that we have departments that are paid so low that their kids qualify for free lunches at school," Crockett said.
Beckie Benton, the Boone County elections coordinator, said unofficial results from Tuesday's election were: for 699, against 629.
The results won't be official until Monday, Benton said.
The tax will bring in about $2 million a year, split evenly between the fire and police departments, Crockett said.
It hasn't been determined exactly how the money will be spent. Besides raises, both departments need new facilities and vehicles, Crockett said.
The ballot title stipulated that 30 percent of revenue generated from the sales tax would be used only for buildings and equipment in each department.
Police Chief Paul Woodruff said he would like to move the Police Department to a new location in the center of the city, but that will be years away.
First, Woodruff said, he wants to hire two police officers and buy two new cars. The department has 29 full-time officers and 12 civilian dispatchers.
Woodruff said he will request small raises initially for officers and dispatchers, with additional "longevity raises" for those who have worked for the department for increments of five years.
"We're losing so many officers," Woodruff said. "If you come to work today, you're making the same amount as one of my officers who started 10 years ago, unless they've been promoted."
But often, the police officers don't stay for long.
"I'm hiring them, training them, then they're leaving me," Woodruff said.
Woodruff said he also wants to use some of the money to equip police cars with computers.
Sales-tax proposals to help fund the city's fire and police departments were rejected by voters three times before Tuesday. The first time was in 2011, when it was part of a countywide proposal. The second time was in 2012, when it was on the ballot as a city sales and use tax.
The third time was April 8, when the proposal was for a 1 percent sales tax that would have funded the police and fire departments in addition to others.
Forty percent of the revenue collected from the tax proposed in April would have gone to the city's general fund (part of which would have been used to pay for residential trash collection). And 10 percent of the revenue would also have gone to the Parks and Recreation Department. The rest would have gone to the police and fire departments. The April vote was 722 in favor and 994 against.
Woodruff said after the April election that he heard from some that they would have voted for the tax if it were for only the police and fire departments. So he asked the City Council for the special election that was held Tuesday with only funding for the police and fire departments on the ballot.
Currently, Harrison has a 0.5 percent sales tax that provides money for infrastructure and a 0.25 percent sales tax that provides revenue for the general fund, said Crockett. Both of those taxes are set to expire in 2018.
Metro on 08/17/2014