In a 2004 advisory referendum, Clark County voters approved the "More Cops" initiative, which called for a half-cent increase in the sales tax to provide additional funds to hire more police. However, the 2005 Legislature pared the increase back to a quarter of a cent, deferring discussion of a full increase until 2009. This enabled Las Vegas Metro to hire 160 new officers in 2006, with the expectation of adding 150 each year until 600 positions had been filled. The goal of More Cops had been to put 1,200 additional officers on the street. What state lawmakers did not anticipate in 2006, when the economy was booming, was that when they revisited the issue in 2009 it would be amidst the Great Recession.
Still, Metro went back to the Legislature for that additional 0.25 percent to which constituents had given their blessing. "Metro points to decreasing rates of violent and property crime, as well as calls for service, as direct benefits of that tax money, which was approved on the promise to hire more street cops, reported the Las Vegas Sun. Burglaries fell 11 percent, as did assaults. Auto-theft cases plunged 30 percent. With more cops at its disposal, Metro was also able to grow "proactive calls" – investigations of suspicious activity – by eight percent. The downside of this was that the court system was left groaning under an increased caseload that resulted in a need for more prosecutors and public defenders alike.
It probably did not help Metro's cause that it was sitting on a bank balance of $137 million, plus another $60 million in its general fund. And a state Legislature that was looking at raiding local budgets to balance its own was not likely to be in a giving frame of mind. Clark County Commission Chris Giunchigliani advocated an omnibus approach, whereby the whole ball of wax – cops, prosecutors, public defenders – would be rolled into the appeal for the extra quarter-cent tax increase. "The citizens of Clark County should be thankful we have that money, because other jurisdictions are laying off officers," said Metro lobbyist Lt. Tim Roberts, adding "you just can’t hire 600 new cops overnight." The hefty bank balance would, he told the Sun, act as a guard against having to raid the general fund if the influx of tax money slackened.
Then-State Sen. Bob Coffin (now on the County Commission) also took a sanguine view, saying that "the public always likes law enforcement and the police have a big PR machine." On one side you had Metro saying that it was just asking the Legislature to put its stamp on what the voters had already approved, and on the other side were lawmakers saying that, had the 2004 vote been held in 2009 economic conditions, the outcome would not be favorable to Metro. The Legislature was certainly not sympathetic, withholding approval of further More Cops taxes until 2013, when Gov. Brian Sandoval signed off on a partial increase – as much as 0.15 percent but not the 0.25 that Metro sought … and the increase had to pass by a supermajority of the Clark County Commission. So the 'new' tax increase of 2015 was merely an enlargement (but still not to capacity) of the 'old' tax increase that went before the voters in 2004.
New Sheriff Joe Lombardo, perhaps anticipating a difficult vote, struck a bargain with the commissioners whereby sales taxes would be raised only 0.05 percent -- with the added proviso that the new levy would sunset in 2025 -- and the money would be used only to hire officers. Funding to add support personnel would have to come out of Metro's existing budget. The increase passed in late 2015 by a vote of 6-1, Giunchigliani being alone in dissent. So, 11 years after voters approved it, Metro still finds itself a little short of the tax increase, and resultant funds, that it originally was promised.
