Letter: Monroe police station bond issue a bad idea
On the November ballot you will be asked to vote for a $12.5 million bond issue to pay for a new police station. The total cost is estimated at $14.5 million for the building without any amount provided for continued maintenance and operations.
If approved, the city website indicates that the 2023 millage rate will be 0.98, just under 1 mill. In 2025, the decommissioning of the DTE power Plant will kick in and its taxable valuable reduction will be picked up by residential property owners. So be advised that this millage rate will go up in the future as DTE’s taxable value goes down. This means you will be responsible for paying more each year.
In the early 1980s, the city of Monroe partnered with the county of Monroe to build the Law Enforcement Building on East Second Street. As city taxpayers, we paid our portion of the building dedicated to the Monroe Police Department and, as county taxpayers, we also helped pay for our portion of the sheriff's office and jail facility. So city residents have a vested interested in the building. Currently, city taxpayers annually reimburse the county for our portion of the maintenance and operations of the building which was $55,224 for 2022. Please note: We only pay for the maintenance and operations because the building is paid off.
According to the city’s website, the 2023 payment for the new police building would be $944,000. A taxpayer with a home valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $49 per year in taxes for this bond issue. Today, that same taxpayer is only paying $2.85 for the current police department on East Second Street.
The November ballot request is a “want” and not a “need.” The 2019-20 public safety study, which cost the city over $200,000, never mentioned the need for a new building. The ballot issue isn’t about supporting police; it's about building a building that we don’t need.
As a former Monroe city councilperson, I supported fiscal policies for increased salaries, new equipment and training of our city police officers and I always will. But as a city and county taxpayer, I find the ballot issue to build another police department fiscally irresponsible, unsupportable and not well thought out. I find it equally amazing that not one current city councilperson questioned the need for the building.
Please vote no for this needless bond issue.
John Iacoangeli
Monroe
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Letter: Monroe police station bond issue a bad idea
