Schramm told the Journal-News the deciding factor for him was the township might not be able to renew its contract with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office if it doesn’t pass a levy that will fully cover the new five-year agreement. Farrell has suggested the township go for a straight renewal and then return to the ballot in a few years when it needs to add more deputies.
RELATED: Liberty Twp. residents each pay $73 for police protection. How does that compare?
Schramm said he does not relish the thought.
“Basically we were going to be faced with having to come back with a levy, I think even Tom was acknowledging that, they we were going to need something in three years,” Schramm said.
“Well good golly if you know you’re going in three years why do I want to fight that fight again when I don’t really know what the political climate’s going to be or the voter’s mentality is going to be.”
Farrell promised voters when he was stumping for the fire levy several years ago the township wouldn’t raise taxes when the police levy renewal was up. He said while he opposes the increase he does understand it is necessary.
“When it’s all said and done at the end of the day, it’s not a significant increase and we wouldn’t be able to continue past 2022 or 2023 without additional funds, so we would have had to go back eventually,” he said. “So I’ll just have to make the best of the decision that was made.”
The township is negotiating a new deal with the sheriff and Major Mike Craft has said because the township’s rapid growth five new deputy positions are needed over the life of the contract. The levy generates $2.3 million, and the contract is $3 million, but it is estimated to jump to $3.6 million in the final year of the new agreement. Other funding sources make up the difference.
Farrell recently surveyed 12 similarly situated communities in the region — only two in Butler County — and found township residents each pay about $73 per year for police protection compared to the average of $160 overall in the communities surveyed. The Journal-News did a similar study, focusing on police agencies in the Butler County.
Liberty Twp. has the lowest per-capita cost of the 10 Butler County police agencies, and Monroe has the highest at $355 per resident with a $4.8 million budget. West Chester Twp. has the highest budget at just under $18 million, but that township also runs its own dispatch center, has a SWAT team and a cornucopia of public service programs run by police, according to Police Chief Joel Herzog.
Trustee Christine Matacic said the surveys show Liberty Twp. has run a frugal police operation, and those statistics do not even include the estimated 500 businesses that also use police protection. The township has doubled in size to around 42,000 in the past two decades.
The trustees debated a renewal versus a replacement, which would capture new growth and bring in an estimated $3.3 million, but there is a catch in that option. If the expiring levy is disturbed, taxpayers would lose their state-paid Homestead Exemption tax rollbacks.
Matacic said a replacement levy would cost taxpayers a total of $240,000 because of rollback issue, so that was not an acceptable option.
“We’re on the right track and we’re going to stay on the right track,” she said. “Sometimes with a growing community you’re attracting new businesses, you need to step up a little bit. It’s a very small increment we’re taking a look at, asking our voters if that’s what they want to do. And I think for the future of our community it’s not a bad deal.”
The official vote will come next month.
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