In May, a proposed three-eights cent sales tax to benefit public safety was defeated by 20 votes. During the campaign prior to the vote, some members of both the police and fire departments took issue with the proposal and didn’t support it.
Supporters of the tax will get a second chance to pass it Nov. 14 and on Friday, Fire and Emergency Services Chief Shauwn Howell was asked if those issues had been resolved and did he expect this new proposal to get more support.
Howell went on to say that the language was not very clear as to how the money was to be distributed.
Howell appeared on the Oldies 1013 morning show and said he has a lot of emergency equipment needs but those differ from the needs of the police department. For example, he doesn’t need to buy firearms and cameras that police need. He said he needs to buy fire trucks, emergency equipment, medical equipment.
“Our needs are not line item to line item but both of us have needs.
