Gaylord Argues in Favor of Public Safety Tax

Following are the prepared remarks of San Juan County Prosecuting Attorney Randall Gaylord Presented to the San Juan County Council on July 10, 2012: “On the Public Safety Sales Tax and Early 2013 Budget Discussion”

I support the public safety sales tax.

There are three aspects of it that are appealing.

First, it is a reasonable amount to pay for most people … just three tenths of one percent – 30 cents on a hundred dollar purchase, $15.00 on $5,000 of purchases.

Second, the price is paid by visitor and residents alike. It is a way of sharing the costs of providing services in this community to the people who benefit from the services. We know that incidents of crime rise during the summer, not because summer visitors have a propensity to commit crime, but rather because our population doubles or triples.

Third, the money is directed to the offices that address fairness of how we treat our people – to the sheriff, the prosecutor, public defense and the courts. These are things that define the good standard of living and way of life in this community. These law and justice activities bring value to property owners and visitors alike. When I spoke to members of the Chamber of Commerce last year, I was asked to remind you that the safe community we share is something that makes our community attractive and brings people here.

There has been no rush to adopt the public safety sales tax. It is a tax that was authorized in 2003. Nearly a decade has passed and during that time County leaders have cut budgets and used other ways to pay for law and justice services.

Over the past 10 years this office has used innovative ways to maintain the standard of public safety that the community wants without increasing the number of employees. We have taken advantage of grants for programs that benefit victims, worked with school districts to simplify truancy matters and catch young people before they commit more serious crimes. We have worked at providing court and investigative files in electronic format to lower costs. But we can’t simply ask one person to do the work of two.

I asked the elected prosecutor for Yakima County for his thoughts on this tax – because the citizens of Yakima County have approved it. He suggested we develop a problem with gangs committing violent crimes and spend almost 80 percent of the county budget on law and justice. I told him “no thanks.”

In San Juan County we will use the public safety sales tax as a shield, not a sword. It’s a way to protect the good life we already have, not a way to restore the good life that we have lost.

To protect the public safety you have adopted an ordinance that will do two things: One — diversify the sources of the county’s income, and two — stabilize the revenues dedicated for the law and justice activities of the county. The county benefits from the property tax, a very stable source of revenue.

But the property tax has a limit that prevents it from keeping up with expenses. That’s why citizens need to diversify the revenue source by supporting the sales tax.  The advantage of the public safety sales tax is that it accomplishes both goals of providing a stable source of income and revenue dedicated to law and justice activities.

It’s been two months since you adopted public safety sales tax. Now is the time for you – each of you – to speak out to the public in letters to the editor, at your town meetings, and at every opportunity you have to support the public safety sales tax. You have the information that you need to encourage other voters to support the public safety sales tax. The time to act is now.