Hang on to your wallets, Kent residents. The Kent City Council is trying to extort money from us once more.
The Kent Public Safety Committee has proposed that utility taxes be raised to pay for additional police officers (Kent Reporter, Feb. 2). Who among us doesn’t want more police? But here is the kicker: If public safety were actually “number one to the city,” as Council President Bill Boyce claims, then it should be number one on the $581.6 million Kent city budget, not last.
As a tax-paying Kent resident, I expect basic and necessary services like firefighters and police to be fully funded first in the city budget before anything else, not tacked on as an increase in the utility tax.
Reject this extortion and demand that Kent Police get the additional officers they need as a part of the regular budget.
– Eric Olson
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