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Penny Sales Tax Money To Buy Traffic Patrol Motorcycles

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: January 22, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – The Sheriff's Office sought to rev up support today to buy seven traffic patrol motorcycles with Penny for Pasco revenue.

Some county commissioners hesitated this morning to allow the change since voters in 2004 approved the extra penny of sales tax to help buy marked patrol cars, among other uses.

A compromise was reached today, however, in which the Sheriff's Office would buy five fewer patrol cars, or a total of 95, with Penny revenue this fiscal year to free up money to buy the motorcycles.

The only other option would have been to find an extra $100,000 to buy motorcycles. A lot of uncertainty hangs over the county budget, though, because of possible changes in the state's property tax system.

The Sheriff's Office had been leasing Harley-Davidson motorcycles the past several years, Maj. Maurice Radford explained today to county commissioners. The monthly lease payments, however, have gone up from $150 to a bit more than $400, Radford said.

With lease payments so high, it now makes more sense to buy, Radford said. The one advantage to leasing was annual trade-ins, he noted.

The motorcycles the Sheriff's Office buys probably will have to be on the road several years.

When the Penny for Pasco was up for approval nearly four years ago, voters were given a specific list of proposed uses for the extra cent of sales tax, Michael Nurrenbrock, director of the county's Office of Management and Budget, reminded commissioners.

The original list of expenditures by the county with its 45 percent of the Penny for Pasco take was Sheriff's Office patrol cars, not motorcycles.

Under the Penny for Pasco plan approved by voters, the Pasco School District also gets 45 percent of the annual revenue and the county's cities divides the remaining 10 percent.

"I wanted to avoid the criticism other communities have had" for promising voters one thing while spending extra sales tax money another way, Nurrenbrock said today.

Commissioner Ann Hildebrand expressed similar reservations about spending Penny dollars on the motorcycles.

The motorcycle traffic patrols represent a "great service to the citizens of Pasco County," Hildebrand remarked. "However, I can still see photos" of patrol cars the county used in its advertising urging approval of the Penny for Pasco.

"Are we reneging" on the Penny promise by allowing money from the special sales tax levy to be used to buy motorcycles? Hildebrand rhetorically asked.

Patrol motorcycles are a legitimate use of Penny revenue, Commissioner Michael Cox believes. So long as the money is used to buy marked patrol vehicles, cars or motorcycles, Commission Chairman Ted Schrader said, he, too, would be comfortable with the change.

"It's a tradeoff that can be justified," Commissioner Jack Mariano said. Plus the motorcycles would be much more fuel efficient than cars, he said.

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