AURORA — The Aurora City Council for several years has struggled to fund its requirement of having to hire two police officers for every 1,000 residents.
Now it is moving forward with what likely will be a contentious proposal that could help solve the problem.
At a study session Monday night, the council decided to move to regular session next month a plan to ask voters in November for a property tax increase to fund the gap that a current sales tax for the requirement does not cover.
Homeowners would pay roughly $24 per $100,000 of assessed value.
But the tricky part of that same potential ballot measure will be that if voters do not pass it, the two-per-1,000 requirement would be eliminated.
The proposal came from Councilwoman Marsha Berzins and was one of a handful of plans discussed at the study session. The council also decided to continue working with the police union on other potential solutions.
Mark Finnin, president of the Aurora Police Association union, said the union will not support any measure that would do away with two-per-1,000. But it is willing to listen to other potential solutions.
“The reality is something is going to happen one way or another,” he said.
Voters in 1993 approved a quarter-cent sales and use tax increase for the two-per-1,000 issue.
Everything was fine when the economy was in good shape, but as it has gone south, and the city continues to grow, Aurora has had to take away funding from other departments to keep up with the mandate.
The quarter-cent sales tax raises between $9 million to $10 million annually, but finance director Jason Batchelor said the city kicks in at least $6 million a year to cover all the two-per-1,000 expenses.
“I don’t think the sales tax is a viable source of revenue,” Councilman Bob Broom said.
The council shot down other potential solutions, including lowering the ratio slightly, suspending it for several years and asking voters to eliminate it entirely.
“Are we going to continue to cut services to every department in the city to fund one department?” asked Councilwoman Renie Peterson, who proposed eliminating it through voter approval.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
