Merced County Sheriff expresses disappointment if sales tax measure, Measure R, fails
Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke and others who work in the public safety sector were looking at Measure R as a lifeline.
With most of the votes counted, Measure R, known as the Merced County Public Safety Stabilization Act, appears to be falling short of the two-thirds yes votes from Merced County voters needed for approval.
After the most recent voting results released Wednesday, Measure R had received 19,888 votes or 58.31% of the 34,106 total votes counted.
“Although the majority of the people voted in favor of it, it still didn’t meet the threshold,” Warnke said. “So disappointing is an understatement. I don’t know that the citizens actually know the severity of the situation in the county.”
Officials say the sales tax would generate approximately $25 million annually that would aid fire departments, the sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office.
The measure establishes a 1/2 cent sales tax collected county wide for 30 years.
Merced County has struggled to maintain adequate public safety staffing levels, leading to struggles in the levels of service in the areas of law enforcement and fire protection.
Warnke says he understands people don’t want to pay an extra sales tax, but his office is hurting as they try hiring and retaining deputies.
“I don’t want any extra taxes, but if you’ve got a leaky roof at your house, you’re going to do what you can to get that repaired,” Warnke said. “Well, right now this county’s got a severe leaky roof, and a minority of the people who made the call to say, ‘We’re not going to repair it,” my fear is that I’m going to continue to lose staffing. People are going to call 911, and I might not have somebody there to be able to respond to that phone call in a timely manner or at all.”
The sheriff’s office is allocated to employ 96 deputies, but has been operating severely short-staffed for about five years, Warnke said. Currently, the department has 71 deputies, 25 short of the allocation..
He said they county is struggling to retain deputies because they leave for other counties offering higher salaries.
“I was hoping that with the passage of Measure R that I would have had deputies that have worked here prior want to come back home,” Warnke said. “It was a very strong possibility, because it happened seven or eight years ago when we were facing the same thing, and the county gave them a decent raise.”
The measure is structured so that 80% of the revenue would be allocated to Merced County public safety expenses. Of the 80% annual revenue collected, 52% would be for the Merced County Sheriff’s Department, 15% for the district attorney’s office, and 33% for Merced County Fire.
The other 20% would go to city and town programs. Each city share would be distributed proportionally by population with no city receiving less than $250,000.
Cal Fire has also seen budget cuts force the Board of Supervisors to close two stations in the county.
Merced District Attorney Nicole Silveira said the funds will be vital in recruitment and retention of prosecutors in her office.
Warnke said he doesn’t know what’s next. He understands the Merced County Board of Supervisors has plenty on their plate when it comes to budgeting funds.
“I don’t know how the county is going to come up with the funding to do this, to keep public safety afloat,” Warnke said. “I know that they’re in the process of closing at least three fire stations. They’ve already closed one of those three, and we got two more on the chopping block. What’s it going to take for people to wake up with public safety, it’s that crucial.”
Warnke said he’ll hold out hope that the numbers change as the last of the ballots are counted and Measure R will pass.
If it doesn’t, Warnke won’t need his crystal ball.
“I am not a fortune teller, but I can tell you the future on this, it is going to get worse,” he said. “I’ve been doing this a long time. There’s not many cops in this county or in this state that have been doing this for 45 years. I have, and I can tell you with certainty, it is going to get worse.”
