Safety renewal levy passes by wide margin
MANSFIELD – Residents can expect the same level of service from the safety forces with the passage of the safety renewal tax.
Mansfield voters passed the renewal of a four-year, 0.5 percent income tax by an unofficial count of 1,236 to 665 in totals from the Richland County Board of Elections.
That translates to 65 percent of the voters saying "yes."
"I'm happy with the margin," Mansfield Fire Department Chief Steve Strickling said. "It shows that people got the message that we were trying to get out to them."
Police Chief Ken Coontz echoed those thoughts.
"We're very grateful to the community for their continued faith in our safety services," he said. "Even though we're not gaining anything, we're not losing anything."
The money from the renewal tax will be used to help pay for police, fire, 911 and crime lab services. The tax typically brings in $6.9 million to $7.1 million a year.
Voters first approved the safety tax in 1988 and have renewed it six times in a row.
"I'm very proud that the citizens continue to give us support," Strickling said. "They have for the long term."
The safety tax helps fund a busy police department that handled nearly 37,100 calls for service, 4,611 arrests, 3,237 summonses and 1,309 traffic crashes in 2014.
Mansfield firefighters also stayed busy, with 1,773 fire-related calls and 7,859 emergency medical calls last year.
"We don't anticipate adding any personnel from this levy," Strickling said. "It's strictly to continue to provide the services that we provide now."
The safety tax does not fully finance all of those activities; it funds about one-third of the cost.
For 2015, the city set aside around $10.9 million from the general fund for safety services. That will be supplemented with about $7 million from the safety tax, along with $3.5 million from the PRIDE tax and a 0.25 percent income tax Mansfield voters approved in fall 2013, when the city was struggling to emerge from fiscal emergency.
If voters had not renewed the 26-year-old safety tax, it would have meant about $3.5 million lost from the budgets of both the police and the fire departments.
That didn't come close to happening, but Coontz was still concerned about the 665 "no" votes.
"That's 600 people who, for whatever reason, don't think the safety forces should be funded," he said. "You hope that you are somehow able to win over those folks. It's a never-ending battle."
mcaudill@gannett.com
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Twitter: @MNJCaudill