Reader Poll Results: Services and the taxes that pay for them

Last week, I asked whether residents would support a 5 cent tax increase, about $250 per household, to maintain existing city services, including those that go beyond normal police and public works.

With 326 responses, the results were:

• Raise taxes 5 cents and keep existing services: 68%
• Don't raise taxes 5 cents and cut some services: 19%
• Raise taxes more than 5 cents and add new services: 10%
• No opinion: 3% 

While I'm personally skeptical of tax increases, and have fought past efforts to raise the city's tax rate, years of door knocking and surveying have put me squarely in the minority. These numbers are consistent with the last several years' worth of door-to-door feedback and past informal surveys.

The city is most of the way through its review of next fiscal year's proposed budget, which calls for a 5 cent tax rate increase, about $250 for the typical Bowie household.

While no one supports tax increases for their own sake, there has been an enduring resident consensus about maintaining existing services, even if it means paying more to cope with accelerating costs while other jurisdictions cut back.

The city maintains a rare municipal Aaa bond rating, its own police department, substantial supplemental services, and has had no tax rate increases for the past fourteen years.

Credit risk analysts have flagged in recent years that service costs outpacing revenue could jeopardize the city's credit worthiness, making future borrowing more expensive.

The biggest change in city services came with the creation of the Bowie Police Department in 2007. The city successfully applied for a reduction in county property tax rates when it created the police service.

The plan was for a commensurate increase in the city's tax rate to fund the new department, which never materialized.

The City Police Department employs 86 personnel including 53 sworn officers, and manages its own 9-1-1 dispatch and 24/7 non-emergency call center. The department is slated for 65 sworn officers, though a typical Maryland town of Bowie's size would employ closer to 160 personnel.

In past years, the city was able to rely on growth in its tax base, increased property values, deferred maintenance, and its reserve fund to prevent tax rate increases.

Worsening labor shortages, the growing cost of attracting workers, and skyrocketing prices of materials necessary in public maintenance have outpaced revenue several years in a row.

This year, fewer capital projects can be delayed as past deferrals have made once non-urgent projects more critical. The city's reserves–used increasingly to cover shortfalls–risk hitting their minimums next year, which city personnel warn could jeopardize the city's Aaa bond rating.

Absent a tax rate increase, city finance staff warn cuts will need to go beyond capital projects and include some operations as well. Past resident feedback has suggested strong opposition to discontinuing services, even those that go beyond normal public safety and public works.

Among popular supplemental services are twice weekly trash pickup, a substantial portfolio of parks, community, and recreation facilities, twice annual vacuum leaf collection, and low cost student and family counseling.

Some discussion in recent weeks has turned to a possible final one-year delay to give residents and city officials time to navigate a tax increase or cuts to service. My personal view is this not only delays the inevitable, but could exacerbate the problem. Delayed past projects only saw their costs rise substantially with inflation.

The city will hold another public hearing on Monday, May 1 at 8pm at City Hall to discuss the tax rate and hear in-person resident feedback. Another budget work session is scheduled for May 8, with the final budget vote planned for May 15.

I discuss the city's financial situation in past columns here and am always seeking resident feedback. Write me directly with your thoughts at mesteve@cityofbowie.org.