GROUP SEEKS SALES TAX HIKE TO ADD POLICE
BLOCK WATCH PLAN WOULD BOOST RATES BY FRACTION
Byline: By Laura Plachecki, THE PHOENIX GAZETTE
Block Watch leaders want Phoenix voters to approve a sales tax increase to pay for more
police officers and firefighters.
Residents who serve on the city's Block Watch commission and advisory board plan to take out petitions Friday for a ballot initiative calling for the 0.1 percent increase in the sales tax.
The group has until July 1 to collect 12,000 signatures to put the issue on the October ballot, said Richard Fox, president of the Block Watch advisory board.
If passed by voters, the Neighborhood Protection Initiative would raise enough revenue to pay for 250 more police officers and 70 more firefighters, Fox said. Some money also would go toward grass-roots crime prevention programs.
The group estimates more than $12 million would be generated by the increase.
A similar initiative was proposed Tuesday by City Councilman Salomon Leija.
Leija asked the council during its regular policy session to ask voters for the 0.1 of a percent sales tax increase. Under Leija's plan, less money would go to the Police and Fire departments and more to prevention programs.
Leija needs five votes from the council to put his proposal on the ballot. Several council members and the mayor said they believe a tax increase initiative should come from the public.
The council has until July 7 to vote on the issue.
Despite Leija's proposal, the block watch group is going forward with its initiative plan, Fox said.
Although the initiative plan came from the public, the police officers union had a hand in getting them to see a need.
Mike Petchel, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said he has been trying for two years to get the public to understand the Police Department's budget problems.
When speaking to the public, Petchel said, he would explain that a neighborhood may not be patrolled regularly because there are not enough officers.
He said he tells them that the Police Department responds to life or death situations only 68 percent of the time within five minutes.
''Because of a lack of manpower, the public isn't being served,'' Petchel said. ''We sent that message out and thankfully it was received.''
Neighborhood groups throughout Phoenix often ask city officials for more police protection.
''Every time I attended Block Watch meetings people were pounding me about the need for more police officers,'' said Lora Lee Nye, chairwoman of the Block Watch Commission.
When she told them the only way to get more officers is to raise taxes, ''They all said that's fine if you can guarantee it will go to protection.''
Petchel said he ''has not been bashful'' about telling residents the way to get more police officers is to raise taxes.
''This is probably the fruition of our best dream -- to finally see so many citizens come together and want to put something on the ballot,'' he said. ''To do it simply ourselves would appear to be self-serving.''
The union will lobby for the initiative, he said.
Residents hope to set up tables to gather signatures at Sunday's Phoenix Suns game, if the NBA Finals go to a sixth game, Nye said.
With at least 1,200 Block Watch organizations and several hundred neighborhood associations, the residents believe they can collect enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
Nye said, however, that two weeks will be a tough deadline to meet. She also said she expects there will be some people who oppose the initiative.
Holly O'Brien is one. She believes council members are elected to make decisions on tax increases.
''I'd hate to see citizens having to do the government's job,'' she said at Tuesday's council meeting. O'Brien is president of the Neighborhood Coalition of Greater Phoenix.