Longmont may soon have a tax to grind.
At a May 19 Longmont City Council meeting, Longmont Public Safety staff sounded the alarm on significant understaffing within the department. Now, voters may have a chance to change that.
Following the meeting, city council directed staff to bring back options for a November ballot tax question that would ask voters to approve a sales tax increase or a dedicated property tax to fund more positions for police and fire services. Tuesday night, they’ll discuss which direction to take.
Falling behind?
According to an LPS report, current staffing is below state and national rates. Here’s how Longmont compares against the state and nation for sworn police personnel per 1,000 residents.
Longmont: 1.61 per 1,000 residents
Colorado: 2.2 per 1,000 residents
Nation: 2.4 per 1,000 residents
In order to meet projected service demand by 2036, LPS says the city needs to add 95 more positions. It emphasized that calls for fire and police service in Longmont are far outpacing staffing. And between 2009 and 2025, growth of public safety staff has been mild.
2009: 141 sworn police, 88 sworn fire
2025: 166 sworn police, 100 sworn fire
Meanwhile, demand for help has spiked. Between 2020 - 2024…
Fire emergency calls went up 83.5%.
High-priority police calls went up 83.8%.
If city council chooses to move the idea forward, city staff will begin the process of drafting an ordinance for the November ballot.