Columbia’s mayor is thanking voters for this week’s narrow approval of Proposition One, a one percent sales/use tax that will be dedicated to public safety.
It passed by less than 100 votes, out of about 30,000 ballots cast. Mayor Barbara Buffaloe tells reporters that the community considered the proposal closely:
“Over the last couple (of) months some of the conversations I heard were people worried about costs going up right, how will this affect their budget. And for us we just we’re having the conversation about how do we locally invest in local priorities,” Mayor Buffaloe says.
Collections for the new tax will begin in January. Columbia city manager De’Carlon Seewood says the city won’t start receiving revenue from Proposition One until March. He expects about $38-million to be generated annually from Proposition One and says the plan is for 50 additional police officers and 40 additional firefighters over four years.
Meantime, Columbia’s fire chief is also praising this week’s passage of Proposition One. Fire chief Brian Schaeffer joined Mayor Buffaloe and other officials at the city hall briefing:
“This is probably the most profound and defining decision that this community has made … like the mayor said … in decades,” the chief says.
Chief Schaeffer says this funding stream will help them get caught up.
While the new tax will start being collected in January, the city won’t start receiving revenue from Proposition One until March. Police chief Jill Schlude has said that a new police headquarters is planned, with the voter-approved measure. Chief Schlude says CPD will locate in the former IBM building on Lemone Industrial. The current Columbia police station downtown is 93 years old.