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FARGO (KFGO) — Fargo voters will have another tax measure to vote on in November after the city commission voted 3-2 to add it to the ballot.
Fargo Fire and Fargo Police would benefit from a change to the Home Rule Charter to allow a quarter cent sales tax to be used exclusively for their operations. The sales tax would be in place for 20 years and would raise $8 million annually.
Fargo Fire Local 642 Union president Eric Eisenlohr says they asked commissioner Denise Kolpack to introduce the proposal to fix a problem that’s been going on for many years.
“That is, not funding fire and police operations fully,” Eisenlohr says. “Police officers are short-staffed and the police chief would like to hire more people. He put in for six people this year and that request was denied because of budget issues.”
Mayor Tim Mahoney voted against it saying voters are already being asked to approve a lodging tax and quarter-cent Fargodome remodel and expansion tax. He suggested waiting until 2026.
Commissioner Dave Piepkorn was the other ‘no’ vote.
“Two departments get all this and it ties our hands,” Piepkorn said. “We decide how to do the budget, but now they’ve intervened to set the budget just for themselves. Just two departments. How embarrassing.”
Piepkorn says the request by the union is selfish.
“It’s Team Fargo, right? Team Fargo. Except the team is the A-squad, which is police and fire; everyone else, not so much,” Piepkorn says.
Eisenlohr told KFGO News that being called selfish was disappointing.
“We give a lot of our time away from our families,” Eisenlohr says. “Christmases. Birthdays. Missing kids’ baseball games. All that stuff. We give a lot of time to this profession, and being called selfish by a city commissioner was disappointing, to say the least.”
Commissioner John Strand said he’s embarrassed that Fargo’s cops and firefighters needed to come up with creative ways to fund their livelihoods.
Commissioner Michelle Turnberg commended the union members for coming up with a solution, rather than complaining to the commission.
If both sales tax increases are approved, sales tax in Fargo would be 8%.
West Fargo voters passed a half cent sales tax for police and fire in 2022.
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