Tribune - Debra Reid Cleaning up the fuel spill was more time consuming than fighting the big rig blaze near Kleppe Lane early Tuesday. The truck was destroyed but no injuries were reported. Public safety departments, including police and fire, are exempt from future budget cuts said Sparks city officials.
Public safety historically comprises between 62 percent and 65 percent of the city's general fund budget, said City Manager Shaun Carey.
In spite of its hiring freeze and other budget control measures, the city made room in next year's budget to hire for six positions in the Sparks Police Department.
If the city expects to continue maintaining public safety services for its residents at current levels, more funding will be needed in the future, Carey said.
"In the future, we will need 12 more firefighters for station No. 6 (in Spanish Springs)," Carey said. "I encourage the council to have a discussion about public safety."
Carey said some departments have endured so much in budget cuts that future cuts or reorganization may eliminate entire departments and services the city provides.
"This is a difficult part of our future," Carey said. "We have cut so much in public works and parks, we are going to have to look at future revenues if we want to maintain our current levels of service."
Some councilmen also said they were nervous about the city's possible future burden of supporting the area's colleges.
There are two main issues that need to be resolved to raise city tax revenues. The city is enduring a slow-down in residential construction, coupled with a slow-down in the Consolidated Tax (C-Tax), which is also partly comprised of general sales taxes, taxes from new car sales and furniture sales.
City councilmen have also said they believe Sparks is getting short-changed and that there is an unfair distribution of the C-Tax among Washoe County and the cities of Sparks and Reno.
In addition, the state rate of depreciation on property taxes is harming local governments in northern Nevada.
The current law creates an unequal property tax rate between old and new houses. Some councilmen said a downtown resident may be paying a few hundred dollars in annual property taxes, whereas someone who lives in Wingfield Springs may be paying a few thousand dollars in annual property taxes on a similar-sized property.
In the meantime, the city is losing out on property taxes it could use to bolster city departments and services.
The council said the public carries a misconception that the city should be taking in enough tax revenue because of increased development of businesses. However, the city receives only about 14 percent of these taxes from businesses, while the state receives the majority of these taxes.
Carey, the council and staff also discussed the idea of allowing residents to help fund city needs by approving a possible ballot question to raise taxes. Some caution is needed, Carey said.
"With the school district and RTC ballot questions (to raise taxes), we've learned over the last year that it needs to have a foundation before it's brought to the public in a ballot issue," Carey said. "We need to build an understanding with the public about funding levels that are needed for the police and fire departments."
The Sparks City Council set its funding priorities as:
1. Public safety
2. Redevelopment/economic growth
3. Infrastructure
4. Flood control
5. Transportation
6. Citizen participation
7. Appearance of the city
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