Both are continuous and would each cost the owner of $100,000 house $52.50 more a year, or $105 if voters approve both issues, according to the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office.
Perry Twp. police Chief Mike Rinehart said department resources have been stagnant since 2003, the last time a police levy passed following one in 1998. Both of those would continue.
RELATED: Human services levy renewal headed to Montgomery County ballot
The effective rates of the current assessments have decreased over the years, according to the auditor’s office. Inflation on top of that has made the roughly $500,000 police budget not stretch as far as it did 14 years ago, Rinehart said.
Police staffing at the department has fluctuated but is now down to a bare-bones force as rising costs for fuel, vehicles, equipment and dispatch services – and now increased state-mandated training — chiseled away at funds that could pay officers. Those who are hired often “springboard” to better-paying jobs at neighboring departments, he said.
The department currently has three full-time positions, including the chief’s, and a handful of part time officers typically working one shift a week. Rinehart said passage of the levy would allow the department five or six full-time positions and at least six dedicated part-timers.
Some residents, however, complain that the department has enough and that a year-to-year carryover in police funds — now at more than $180,000 — shows that no tax hike is required for the agency that serves roughly 4,000 township residents.
RELATED: Sinclair Community College will seek renewal of $27M levy
“I don’t know how you justify having a police levy when you carry that balance over for the last three years for a small township,” said resident Chuck Sweet.
Rinehart said it would be possible to achieve the staffing level he envisions using the carryover, but it wouldn’t be sustainable, he said.
“I’m looking multiple years into the future,” Rinehart said. “The last thing in the world I want to see happen is we bring people on … then two years down the road, three years down the road, we have to cut down and tell people we can’t have five full-timers and take jobs away from people.”
Township trustees Gerald Peters and Sheila Stanifer both voted to place the levies on the ballot. Trustees President Dale Seim was absent.
Stanifer said costs are also rising to keep the 36-square-mile township covered by fire protection and emergency medical services. The township already shortened a contract from four years to two with the Brookville Fire Department due to funding uncertainty, she said.
RELATED: City proposes new tax for more emergency services funding
“We’re trying to hang on to what we have and be proactive about the future,” she said.
Perry Twp. voters last approved a fire/EMS levy in 2013. The Brookville Fire Department serves roughly the northern part of the township in western Montgomery County while the southern half is served by the New Lebanon Fire Department.
An owner-occupant of a $100,000 home in Perry Twp. currently pays $82 a year for the 2013 fire/EMS levy and $152 a year for the police levies, according to the auditor’s office.
The deadline for voter registration deadline is Oct. 10 for the Nov. 7 election.
About the Author
