On Monday night, Fargo city commissioners voted 3-2 to put a second sales tax measure on the November ballot. If approved by voters, this quarter-cent sales tax for 20 years would help increase wages, staff numbers and facilities for Fargo’s firefighters and police officers. At first blush, it sounds like something the public would and should support.
We all want adequate pay, staffing and facilities for our first responders and those who help keep us safe. But this sales tax proposal is a horrible idea that voters should soundly reject. And here’s why: Nothing is more essential to a city than public safety.
If we don’t have a safe place to live, work and raise our families, nothing else matters. So when a city crafts its budget, just as Fargo is doing right now, adequate pay and staffing for police and firefighters should be the first priority. Instead, Fargo’s proposed budget this year and its approved budgets in recent years have not prioritized adequate funding for the police and fire departments, Instead, Fargo’s budget has ballooned on growing property values and higher taxes and fees, only to spend that added taxpayer revenue on luxury departments devoted to public relations and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Together, those two luxury departments account for much of the money needed to provide raises and more personnel to the police and fire departments. Here’s an example of the winners and losers in recent years: While Fargo has only hired one additiona.