Money for public safety stretched thin

A public-safety sales tax approved by Colorado Springs voters in 2001 is stretched to the limit, leaving future police and fire needs unfunded.

Although the .4-cent tax is permanent, the city’s ability to build new police and fire facilities shrinks as the city pumps more of the tax money into personnel and building maintenance.

The tax is paying for 60 new firefighters and 80 new police officers; it also built two police substations and several fire stations and other facilities.

“As we hire firefighters and police officers, money available for capital goes down,” said Deputy Fire Chief Steve Cox. “There’s a limit to what this tax can do.”

That’s why the Fire Department will ask the City Council today to appropriate $1.7 million from other public-safety tax projects and a reserve account to cover a shortfall in funding for Fire Station 8.

The projects from which the city would siphon money will be financed later with certificates of participation, a Fire Department official said in a memo to the council. Certificates are a type of loan the courts have upheld as legal that skirts a state constitutional provision requiring voters to approve debt.

So far, 12 tax-funded projects have been completed. Four others are pending. Of those, eight are over budget, such as the Stetson Hills police substation. Originally estimated at $4.3 million, it wound up costing $6.4 million.

Fire Station 8, for which the Fire Department seeks additional funding, was to be remodeled at a cost of $1.4 million. Instead, the city plans to spend $2.9 million to build a new facility.

Completed projects include the second phase of a police helicopter hangar; the second phase of a police evidence building; Stetson Hills and Gold Hill police substations; an Acacia Park community services facility; a fire training tower; the relocation of Fire Station 14; fire stations 19 and 20; a fire station health, safety and accessibility compliance study; the renovation of Fire Station 6; and a fire maintenance and logistics center upgrade.

Left undone are a $2.9 million Fire Station 21, fire station land acquisition expected to cost $564,445 and land for a future fifth police station, estimated at $950,000.

The city also has modified plans to expand the Fire Department Complex on Printers Parkway, but if and how those plans change the $6.1 million cost isn’t clear.

“I don’t think the tax will support any other facilities,” Police Chief Richard Myers said. “I wouldn’t use this tax and the word sustain in the same sentence.”

How future public-safety projects will be paid for hasn’t been decided.

Vice Mayor Larry Small said he expects that more money for public safety will be needed within two to four years, and council members have asked staff to recommend funding methods.

The public-safety tax is split between the Fire Department, at .19 of a cent, and the Police Department, which gets .21 of a cent.

The total amount of money raised by the tax since it became effective in 2002 wasn’t provided by the city, but finished projects have totaled roughly $19 million, not including the new hires.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0238 or zubeck@gazette.com