Independence has been one of the last holdouts among cities in the Willamette Valley from adding fees attached to utility bills to help fund city services.

But facing a projected shortfall, the city is proposing adding a monthly $27 public safety fee per household for the police department.

“The council desperately tried to not charge fees for so long,” Independence City Manager Kenna West said. “We’re just at a point where it wasn’t an option.”

The City Council is scheduled to discuss its budget — including the proposed public safety fee — at its June 11 meeting.

The proposal has brought objections from residents who say the city should budget with what it’s already allocated and not ask for more.

“I think the dollar amount kind of caught some people when they started doing the math,” said Rob Moody, finance director for the city.

The city of 10,200 also is proposing an operations levy on the November ballot to support things like the library and parks.

Why Independence is asking for the public safety fee

Independence has had budget troubles for a couple of years and made significant cuts last year, including closing the library on Saturdays.

According to city projections, it will be in a deficit by the 2025-26 fiscal year if nothing changes, and by the 2028-29 budget year would face a $3 million deficit.

Moody said the city already is dipping into its reserves to fund the services it currently offers.

People in Independence pay a public safety fee for Polk County sheriff’s services, an operations levy for Polk Fire District No. 1, a school district bond and others.

The city’s growth — from 6,000 in 2020 to 9,800 in 2020 — has put more demands on the police department, which has the same number of officers.

Moody said that the department needs $1 million more in annual revenue to hire seven more officers to bring the current department of 17 officers up to the national standard.

What would the public safety fee cover?

The current bill for a single-family home that uses 500 cubic feet of water per month is $120.82.

The $27 monthly charge — or whatever rate it starts at — would be in place for the six months, then it will begin dropping. It is expected to drop to $10 per month by 2026, and then rise after that based on inflation.

“When this was approved by the budget committee, the motion was to take a look at the possibility to bring back a reduced public safety fee.,” West said. “Although it was approved at $27, we’re going to bring it in at a reduced rate.”

Some residents say money for public safety shouldn’t be attached to a service like a utility bill, and the city should be more transparent about the billing.

“I don’t like the idea that we’re putting the police tax on the utilities,” resident Richard Webb told the City Council. “We need to be telling people what these are for.”

An operations levy likely coming in November

City staff are proposing an arts and culture levy on the ballot in the November election to fund operations at the library, the museum and city parks.

The proposed levy, which would have be approved by the City Council, would cost homeowners at an estimated $1.80 per $1,000 of assessed value of property. If passed, it would go into effect July 1, 2025.

Moody said the rate was determined by coming up with the “combined budgeted cost for parks, museum and library.”

The public safety fee was not included with the proposed levy, West said, because police are an essential service.

“And as much as I love libraries, and I love our museum and I love parks, I hate to say it like this, but if you have someone who’s burglarizing your home, am I going to send my library director?” West said.

Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Independence proposes $27 monthly fee for police services