Public safety levies fail in Tuesday’s election

Several police and fire budgets will not see a boost in funding after voters throughout Butler and Warren counties rejected local public safety tax issues on Tuesday’s special election ballot.

Voters rejected new additional funding for Fairfield Twp. police and fire services; the Franklin Twp. fire department; and a 0.5 percent income tax increase for police services in Carlisle.

Fairfield Twp.’s police and fire levy failed with 61 percent voting against the levy, and 39 percent voting for the levy, according to final unofficial vote totals from the Butler County Board of Elections.

“The voters have spoken. They’ve let us know where they stand,” said township Trustee Shannon Hartkemeyer, who added a decision has not been made yet about whether to return the levy to the ballot in November.

Trustee Tara Downie had been the lone vote against putting the levy on the ballot now, preferring to wait until November, when she said voter turnout would have been stronger.

According to the board of elections, turnout in the township hit a maximum of 22 percent.

The levy would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $171.50 annually in property taxes.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, a Fairfield Twp. resident, had suggested his force could police the township for about $1.8 million, which is roughly what the current police levy generates. Township trustees had said they were not willing to consider the offer until after the levy vote.

Right through Tuesday, the township had been divided about the levy. Outside of Fairfield North Elementary School, a pro-levy sign stood next to an anti-levy sign.

Mike Guard made a slashing motion across his throat to indicate how he voted.

“They spend too much money,” he said of township officials. “They just can’t stop. I’ve got to live with less, they should live with less.”

A number of voters say they simply couldn’t afford the new taxes.

“My property taxes just went up through a reappraisal. And a lot of it went to this fire department and police department. And that was three months ago,” said Rick Broshear.

Franklin Twp.

In Warren County, with all 14 precincts counted, the proposed additional, continuing 14.57-mill Franklin Twp. fire levy was pummelled by a vote of 94 percent against to 6 percent for the levy, according to the final, unofficial results from the Warren County Board of Elections.

Franklin Twp. Trustee Greg Sample said placing the proposed levy was to generate a community conversation with residents about the level of fire and EMS services being delivered in the unincorporated portions of the township. Currently, some unincorporated portions of the township which receive a different level of service because of township contracts with the cities of Franklin and Middletown in certain parts of the township that are adjacent to those communities.

Sample said the trustees were doing their jobs to provide an alternative to the current level of service being delivered in other unincorporated areas of the township and this may engage more residents to propose other options.

“There are no negatives and no one lost anything,” Sample said. “We achieved the first step to begin an active conversation about the delivery of fire services.”

Had the levy been approved, it would have been a 380 percent increase in property taxes and would have cost $509.95 annually, based on a home valued at $100,000.

Carlisle

In Carlisle, officials said they were “disappointed” that the proposed 0.5 percent village income tax to help pay for police services was rejected for a second time in six months.

The proposed income tax increase failed in all four Warren County precincts by an unofficial vote of 59 percent against to 41 percent for the levy. However, there is one precinct in Montgomery County that had not been counted although all early votes that were counted rejected the proposed increase in unofficial results.

“I’m disappointed because a lot of people worked hard to get this passed,” said police Chief Michael Bruck. “We’ll just do the best job we can with the resources the taxpayers give us.”

Mayor Randy Winkler said council was anticipating another failure at the ballot.

“We’re not in dire straits yet,” he said. “We’re trying keep the community safe and to be proactive before we have to make drastic situational cuts. We don’t want to layoff police officers.”

He said council will have to look at a number of things and may have to make some serious cuts in the future.

Had the proposal been approved, it would have raised the village’s income tax from 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent and would have generated about $300,000 a year for police services and capital improvements.

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