Beginning this last summer, we have been discussing the comparatively low pay that our city employees receive and why you should care. It boils down to three problems we are now faced with:
1. Retention in the fire department - The fire department cannot hold onto employees because the pay scale is so low. The Kirksville Fire Department is losing employees to better paying jobs in other cities and going for months without people in those positions.
Job searches cost money – your money. When they finally find someone to fill that spot, they spend your money training these employees for months – all before they are able to step into their new positions. This is taxpayer money we invest in every new employee.
Then what happens? The fire department is discovering that those employees, six months or so later, are leaving their positions for a better paying job somewhere else. All that money that you spent training that employee is no longer an investment – it’s essentially money down the drain for Kirksville. And then they are forced to start the process all over again.
2. Recruitment in the police department – Same situation as above, except the KPD is finding it almost impossible to recruit new officers to the area. Positions have been open for a year or more unfilled. And according to Chief Hughes, when do find someone and send him/her through the police academy and nine months of training – at your expense – it’s not long before they’re looking elsewhere for better pay, now that they have the required training and experience under their belts.
Can we afford to have a shortage of police officers and firefighters in our community?
3. Filling supervisory positions - How would you feel if you made less money than the person you supervised? That’s exactly the situation many of our city employees have been in for years. Would you step into a higher position if you knew you were getting more responsibility and less pay for it? Nobody wants these jobs, and those who are in them are demoralized by their situation and looking elsewhere. And we’re certainly not providing any incentive for our hard-working, wage-earning employees to move up the chain.
Because of these three problems, I believe we are throwing away your tax dollars through our inability to attract and retain quality people. Doing nothing will not improve the situation. It’s not even going to flatline. Instead, it’s going to get progressively worse as salaries and wages become less and less attractive.
Every year that we put this off, we are digging ourselves into a deeper hole – further behind inflation, further behind cost of living. And we will continue to dump your money into these “stepping stone” positions, year after year.
As a steward of your taxpayer dollars, I don’t believe this is fiscally responsible.
The ultimate problem is that we do not have the revenue to be able to correct the situation.
By state statute, cities are very limited in how they can raise funds. We do not have many options – and believe me, we looked high and low for them. We even briefly considered spending down some of our carryover reserve in the budget, but felt that would also be irresponsible because, 1) once it’s gone, it’s gone, so it’s not a sustainable solution, and 2) we have no idea what the economic climate will be in the near future.
We looked at 2 other sales tax options we had left, but after discussion dismissed those as well.
The breakthrough came from the national firefighter’s union representatives, who found a Missouri Fire Protection Sales Tax that we could, by law, put on the ballot this April to free up money for ALL city employees.
This will probably confuse you, so please read carefully. This is a 1/4 cent sales tax that, if passed, would bring in an estimated $600,000 that could only be used for fire equipment and fire-related services. We currently spend over $1 million in General Fund moneys to pay for these fire services. So with the tax covering $600,000, this would free up $600,000 in General Fund money that we could use elsewhere – to begin bringing balance back to ALL city employees’ wages and salaries as appropriate.
This would not correct the problem overnight. But it would be an important first step toward a sustainable solution, and consequently improving recruitment and retention.
I know that, on the surface, it seems crazy to ask for a tax increase at a time of economic uncertainty. But also keep in mind that this is a sales tax, not a property tax. You only pay it when you pay for goods and services in town. That means a good chunk of the money will come from out of town folks – visitors, tourists, students and their parents, hunters in hunting season, people in the surrounding communities, etc. And I believe that bringing outside money into Kirksville is exactly the kind of solution we need in tough times.
Tonight, we voted to put this on the April ballot. But the final vote is ultimately up to the Kirksville citizens. I felt that we had to at least give you the opportunity to support or reject such a measure, knowing full-well the situation.
This is truly our only recourse for a difficult scenario. I strongly believe that we had to be willing to give it a shot.
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I would like to know what city we are competing with. We will never be able to pay our officers the same as the big 3 (StL, KC, COl) now if we are losing new officers to Macon or towns of like size, then we have a problem. Do you know were the last 5 KPD and KFD employees that we trained and put our money into what jobs they have left for. I believe that most have found different types of jobs they got out of serving the public.
Has the city considered hiring the police and fire department personnel with the stipulation that they are required to work for a period of time to justify paying for their training? Several agencies have gone to this process. It will guarantee that the person will stay for the amount of time agreed upon. If the person does not stay, then funds must be paid back to the city. Just a thought to consider if the sales tax does not pass.
I won’t be able to vote for this sales tax increase. Increasing pay and job retention is a noble goal but it does not seem fair during the current economic times to put this burden on the taxpayer.
According to the Department of Revenue ( http://dor.mo.gov/tax/business/sales/rates/2008/oct2008.pdf ) after this sales tax increase Kirksville will have one of the higher sales tax rates in the entire state. How are other cities managing to do more with less?
Hi Walt,
Thank you for your comment. Other are are not necessarily “doing more with less” than us because you have to look at the full revenue picture – beyond sales tax. For example, property values in Kirksville are lower, so property taxes generate less revenue. Everything works in balance to bring revenue into the city.
Also keep in mind that there are several different entities pulling from the sales tax pie – the school district, the ambulance district, etc. There were three increases on the last ballot alone, and only one of them was a city initiative. Kirksville has also been a state leader in partnering with MoDOT to cofund state highway transportation projects, which are part of the current sales tax that you won’t see in other cities.
If not from the taxpayer, where you you suggest we find money to increase pay and job retention? Is there a revenue stream out there available to us that does not originate from the taxpayer?
What will you do in say 5 years when you have spent the entire $600,000 on salary increases (who knows what else), and someone feels the employees need a salary increase? As far as where to find the money for increases, how about getting some industry and businesses in town, ones that customers want and need? Ever wonder why Kv keeps annexing property and people but when the census is taken the city population has decreased. I’ved lived in Kv most of my life, but am real close to moving to Greentop or La Plata and shopping else where. Repeal the smoking ban might help also! By the way, why is the smoking ban not enforced as written?
Don, you are absolutely correct. Low revenues is an issue that is not going away anytime soon.
As I said, this is a first step in the right direction but it will not solve the problem. We will always have a challenge increasing revenues. If it does not improve, maybe we will eventually have to cut some services we now provide.
We do have people working very hard to bring industry and business to Kirksville and they’ve had some successes recently – two new businesses opened on the Baltimore strip in the last couple weeks, there’s HIT, and a new local business called Tub Connection is opening a small factory in our industrial park.
The smoking ban should be enforced as written – I’m not sure what you’re referring to here. Like any law, if you see a violation, you can notify the proper authorities.
Tub Connection is not a new business, as I see it. I believe they were uptown for some time and then moved just outside of town on Potter Ave. and have been there for 2 or 3 years now.
Hey Todd…
Don’t let all of the negativity and misguided comments of many discourage you….
You have to make hard decisions from time to time. The tough part is motivating others to see why you had to do it. You have OBVIOUSLY motivated people… which is a GOOD thing!
You are doing a good job and made the right decision to do this. The timing may be bad, but hey! When IS the timing ever good?
Everyone has to do their part in America now… isn’t that what our president has pointed out? The days of sitting on our haunches while the government took care of everything are gone. Asking folks to pay a quarter cent for fire services is so small in the big scheme of things.
We all have to do our part and your service to our city is greatly appreciated…. Especially NOW when you are having to take so much heat!
Hang in there! You are doing a great job!
@Don:
Yes, but they are now expanding their operations and moving into a lot in our industrial park, inside the city limits. We voted to grant them a tract of land for their factory at the same council meeting.
Mr. Kuhns,
People in Kirksville are concerned that the makeup of the city council does not reflect a realistic cross-section of the community. There appears to be a disconnect with what you are saying on the tax issue and what I’m feeling and hearing from my neighbors.
My question is: Will you support efforts to change our form of city government to change to a ward system of representation? If not, why not? Thank you.