No more free ride for state police coverage

They are about to get down to brass tacks in budget talks in Harrisburg.

Which, of course, if the past few years are any barometer, means nothing will get done until the July 1 deadline is in sight. Actually, that may not be the case. Already there are signs that both Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature might be looking to make nice this budget go-round.

The governor already has indicated that unlike his first two budgets, this year he will not seek any large, broad-based tax increases.

Republicans responded by saying that was a good start. They repressed the urge to snicker and say, “we could have told you this two years ago.”

The two sides seemed to be getting along, a sure sign that something must be about to veer off the tracks in Harrisburg. That came Tuesday, on the first day of budget hearings in the state Capitol. Republicans starting putting up red flags, questioning the revenue assumptions Wolf claims the state can reap by increasing the minimum wage to $12 an hour, and again digging in their heels against Wolf’s plan for a new tax on the state’s Marcellus Shale industry.

Even without his staples of a boost in the sales or personal income tax, the fact is Wolf still needs $1 billion in other levies to balance his $32.3 billion spending plan.

And we think we have one area both sides should be able to agree on, no doubt much to the chagrin of many residents of Berks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.

Wolf is proposing a fee on those towns that eschew the cost of creating and manning their own police force and instead simply rely on state police to patrol and respond to incidents in their towns.

Few of these mostly rural municipalities would exactly qualify as a distressed community. Many are part of booming growth. These are no longer largely rural areas, dotted with farms and the occasional development. These are now increasingly densely populated bedroom communities. Crime is no longer a stranger in many of these towns. Those calls do not bring a local police officer, but rather a state trooper. In effect, the rest of the state is subdidizing these towns.

Chester County has an even longer list, with as many as 24 municipalities relying on state police patrols. There are 11 in Montgomery County and eight in Bucks County.

Across the state, more than half of the Keystone State’s 2,562 municipalities do the same. Policing does not cost them a cent. They instead rely on state police. It works out great for the municipalities; law enforcement costs usually sit near the top of expenditures of all those other towns who use their own police force. The state doesn’t have a choice. Pennsylvania law mandates state police cover those towns without their own department.

In effect, they are getting something for nothing.

Wolf wants to change that, not by necessarily mandating that every town create their own police force, but instead by suggesting those who rely on state police patrols merely pay their fair share.

Wolf is proposing a fee of $25 per resident for these towns to cover their reliance on state police patrols.

Compare that with the cost of providing citizens with a fulltime municipal police force. Studies indicate some townships pay about $335 per person to man a full-time police force.

The most heated argument against the plan most likely comes not from densely populated communities, but more likely the more rural areas of the state, where already cashstrapped little towns rely on state police. The simple question might be, what would they rather have, an annual $25 fee, or the massive cost of creating their own municipal police department? While Wolf and others in Harrisburg are looking to cut costs, the state police budget continues to grow, as it has steadily in recent years. This year’s allocation stands at $1.25 billion, nearly 50 percent more than the $850 million that funded state police patrols in 2006-07.

The state is facing a massive amount of red ink — a fiscal abyss that is fast approaching $3 billion. Nothing is off the table. And that should include the end of the free meal too many towns across Pennsylvania have received by using the state police instead of their own police department.

$25 bucks a head? Sounds like a bargain to us.