Budget Process for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police

¶ … budget process for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD). LVMPD was formed in 1973 as a result of the merger of the Las Vegas Police Department with the Clark County Sheriff's Department. LVMPD serves the city limits of Las Vegas along with unincorporated areas of Clark County.

LVMPD is funded by the City of Las Vegas and Clark County. Police department funding is based on a complex formula determined by population, calls for service, and the number of felony crimes from the previous year. Both city and county governments must approve not just the annual operating budget, but also their respective percentage of the budget. In addition to funding supplied by the two governments, the department itself generates approximately one-third of its funds though property tax and the charging for certain services, such as special events. A special sales tax to fund commissioned positions generates additional funding.

The Law Enforcement Study Committee created the draft of what was to become Senate Bill 340, which activated the LVMPD on July 1, 1973. The Bill provided for a Police Commission to approve the budget and oversee budgetary expenditures as had been done by each of the former Departments' respective Commissions. The Bill also provided a method for funding the LVMPD and designated the Nevada Tax Commission as the arbitrator for any disputes which might arise between the City and County Commissions relative to the funding formula (LVMPD About Us, n.d.).

The LVMPD budget is a plan for revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year July 1 through June 30. Department programs, personnel and purchases are presented for funding through the budget process based upon the goal, objectives and measurement of performance of each department unit. The budget is developed as a program budget and presented as a line item budget for ease of review. The LVMPD budget process undergoes three thorough reviews of police funding by the Fiscal Affairs Committee, City of Las Vegas Council, and Clark County Commission.

The Police Department begins budget preparation in September of each year, ten months prior to budget implementation. From April through May each year, the LVMPD budget is reviewed in City and County budget hearings and meetings, and is then submitted to the State of Nevada Department of Taxation as part of the Clark County Annual Budget. The following schedule makes up the annual budget calendar for the review process:

Annual Budget Calendar

January

Funding Apportionment Plan presented to Fiscal Affairs Committee

February

Tentative Budget submitted to Fiscal Affairs Committee for review by City of Las Vegas Council and Clark County Commission

April

Final Budget approved by Fiscal Affairs Committee then submitted to City and County

May

City and County budget hearings conducted by City Council and County Commission

Prior to June 1

City and County approve budgets for submission to the State of Nevada Department of Taxation

Monthly

Fiscal Affairs Committee budget oversight agenda items each month

(LVMPD Budget-in-Brief, 2011).

The amended final budget request represents a decrease of $10.7 million, or 2.2% in self-generated revenues as a result of further reductions in property valuations, a major funding source. The LVMPD final budget uses $44.4 million from a reserve fund balance to offset the continued shortfall in dedicated property tax revenue and the decreased level of funding from the City of Las Vegas and Clark County. The budget request includes the elimination of 58 additional civilian positions, 118 commissioned positions, and 4 temporary positions. The total number of budgeted full-time positions in this operating fund is 3,473 including 2,184 commissioned and 1,279 civilians (LVMPD Amended Final Budget, 2011).

The current fiscal year budget request totals $501,307,011. A contract totaling $18,879,231 with the Department of Aviation for police services at the Las Vegas Airport offsets expenditures in that budget unit. As required by NRS 280 (Nevada legislation establishing the funding formula), the total amount to be distributed between the City of Las Vegas and Clark County is $307,321,872. The funding formula requires that 38.4% or $118,011,599 be contributed by the City, a reduction from FY 2010/11 of 9.4% or $12,286,419. The County's contribution is 61.6% or $189,260,273, a reduction of 7.5% or $15,398,052 (LVMPD Amended Final Budget, 2011).

Issues for the LVMPD budget process result from the recession and the decline in property values which have created budget shortfalls. Police Department attempts to close these budget gaps is generating significant controversy. According to the Las Vegas Sun, for the first time in its 37-year history, LVMPD's budget was smaller than the year before. Up til last year, LVMPD's budget has increased an average of 10% per year over the past 25 years according to Clark County. The police department is cutting spending because its two primary funding sources, Clark County and Las Vegas, face unprecedented declines in tax revenue. Clark County alone expects a deficit of up to $200 million in the fiscal year 2011 (Schoenmann, 2011).

The smaller police budget may however jeopardize another source of department revenue, which voters approved to put more officers on the street -- the so-called "More Cops" quarter-cent sales tax adopted in 2005. The Police Department attorney argued that the state law that implemented the More Cops tax is ambiguous enough that it could be interpreted as calling for a suspension of the tax if LVMPD's operational budget decreases from one year to the next. The quarter-cent sales tax is collected throughout the county and divided according to population among the county's various police agencies. LVMPD has used the money to hire 584 officers. The Police Department's More Cops budget is about $64 million for the current fiscal year (Schoenmann, 2011).

The Fiscal Affairs Committee weighed in on the debate over the effect of a smaller budget on the More Cops money. As of the writing of this article, the More Cops reserve had a balance of about $143 million. Sherriff Gillespie was challenged during budget meetings about the size of the reserve and its use. Gillespie responded

"We need this money in case of a downturn, in case [the sales tax] doesn't produce to the level that is projected. I think it's very hard to refute what's been done with this money. I would say if it's messed with at all, there would be a backlash from the taxpayers because I think taxpayers like the reduction in crime. I think taxpayers like the additional police officers out there, and if we didn't have this tax we wouldn't have those officers." (Schoenmann, 2011).

Additional budget issues that LVMPD faces concern their ability to provide adequate police services in the face of dwindling revenues. One of their solutions, tapping into a reserve fund to make up for continuing budget shortfalls, generated controversy. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the board overseeing LVMPD voted in April to dip further into the agency's reserves for the next budget cycle. However Sheriff Doug Gillespie warned the Fiscal Affairs Committee that his department cannot keep tapping the reserves forever. Gillespie initially planned to use $33 million of his agency's budget reserve to fill out its upcoming $501 million annual budget. The agency amassed the $84 million reserve in recent years through cutting positions, union pay concessions, and other budget cuts (Haynes, 2011).