Who would the foregone revenue benefit?
The Idaho Falls City Council will be holding a special public hearing tonight. One of the topics on the agenda is the intent to use the foregone amount. The city is trying to use this past fiscal year’s unclaimed tax revenue for a new public safety package.
The City of Idaho Falls intends to use no more than $925,222 of its forgone amount in its 2018- 2019 fiscal year budget for the new proposed public safety projects. Specifically benefiting the city’s police force.
“A lot of these requests we have made that the council is looking at adopting, are needs that we’ve had for quite some time,” said Captain Bill Squires of the Idaho Falls Police Department.
The city would like to use over $920K of its forgone amount for its public safety projects.
The costs could cover:
Additional Police Officers (4 positions, COPS Grant) Additional patrol vehicles and Upfit Additional Police Officer costs Records Clerk (1 position) Dispatch/Communications Specialists (2 positions) Animal Control Officers (2 positions) M-Vac system 34,516 Mini Scope Light Source Smart Ray SRV X-Ray System Crime Scene Trailer Fire Department Turn Outs One new Fire Vehicle (includes light and technology package)
“The city has an opportunity to submit what they call a COPS grant. It stands for Community, Oriented, Policing,” said Pam Alexander, the municipal services director for the City of Idaho Falls. “This COPS grant actually allows the city to apply for a grant that will fund the salary and benefits for four officers at 75 percent.”
The COPS grant would cover the first year’s salary at 75 percent, the second year would cover 50 percent, the third year would cover 25 percent and then the city would have enough funds for the fourth year to cover 100 percent of the salaries.
“What we’re doing is we’re leveraging this opportunity to add to our police force that is sorely needed,”‘ Alexander said.
The total cost of the forgone package is over $1.1 million, but if approved for the COPS grant that would bring the costs down to over $925,222
According to IFPD, public information officer, Holly Cook, a staffing study done says that the department needs approximately 12 new officers to be fully staffed according to the population.
The foregone amount and COPS grant is one way to work its way up there.
“I think it can have a dramatic effect on our abilities to provide the services for our city,” said Squires.
