Tallahassee City Commission Seeks to Increase Property Taxes for Police Budget Increase
MEMORANDUM
DATE: September 27, 2023
TO: My Readers
FROM: Melanie Andrade Williams
SUBJECT: Police Budget, Property Taxes, Over Policing, Crime, Public Safety, Local Policy
Facts
Today the City of Tallahassee City Commission will be deciding, with a final vote, whether or not to increase local property taxes in order to increase the police budget.
It will be a ten percent increase to individual homeowners that will give the Tallahassee Police Department an increase of $9.5 million, allowing them to hire 20 more officers.
Mayor John Dailey, and Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox voted in favor of moving this measure along.
TPD’s budget has increased substantially from fiscal year 2019-2020 to the current fiscal year. The increases each year were as follows:
From Fiscal Year 2019-2020: +$227,390
From Fiscal Year 2020-2021: +$3,109,482
From Fiscal Year 2022-2023: +$4,138,392
Issues
Does hiring more police officers equate to less crimes and safer communities?
We understand that poverty and mental illnesses are some underlying factors in individuals who commit crimes in our city. How are we addressing these areas to help lessen crime and promote public safety?
How are we holding the police department accountable for increasing public safety and lessening crime? What are their measures of success?
Analysis
Although the “Anatomy of a Homicide” report was conducted by a separate agency (Leon County Sheriff's office) I think that we will find that the same issue is at question by our governing bodies. As we know, crime is inextricably linked to poverty. TPD did not cooperate with the staff that compiled the report, nor did they produce crucial records to help get an understanding of what trends or commonalities there are in the victims and offenders of homicides in Tallahassee. If our law enforcement agencies cannot work together to solve a pervasive issue, how can we reward them with millions of more in funding, on the backs of the taxpayers?
Conclusion
With the large increases in the police budget annually, are we sure that there are positive results to show for it before we pour more money into their already exorbitant (almost $70 million) annual budget? Are we using our resources wisely in the areas of addressing mental illness, poverty, and homelessness, to what extent does our investment and police spending outpace the investment in addressing these other issues?
According to the People’s Budget (Tallahassee Community Action Committee), over policing leads to further poverty. Giving more money to the police budget just adds to issues of bias, police brutality and frivolous arrests. All commissioners who claim they are Democrats, care about the poor community, the black community, children, the elderly and people with little access to high quality jobs, education and healthcare, should be voting no on this measure at today’s meeting.
You can watch the meeting starting at 3 pm, live, here: https://www.talgov.com/Main/Home
The next elections are August and November 2024, Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Jack Porter will be up for re-election.