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Harrisburg is discussing charging communities a fee of $25 per resident – if they rely soley on Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) for protection.

Gov. Tom Wolf made the proposal in his budget submission. The fee would generate about $63 million from municipalities affected, providing an additional $30.7 million to PSP for municipal coverage, for a total PSP budget of $1.27 billion.

Currently, nearly half of PA municipalities depend only on the PSP and “comes at no cost to the municipality and is borne by taxpayers statewide, who in many cases support their own local police coverage through local taxes,” said Gov. Wolf.

The proposed budget also provides money for three additional state police cadet classes beginning in 2017-18. These classes, according to the budget, will help restore the complement of state troopers depleted by a large number of retirements.

If the proposal is approved at only $25 each, West Easton would have an annual bill of $31,375, based on Pennsylvania’s database showing 1255 residents. The PSP would make no changes to their duties for a municipality, such as not enforcing local ordinances and it is unlikely response times would change in answering calls.

Basically, nothing would change except that PSP would no longer be free protection. As expected, municipalities that have their own police protection believe it is just, while those who rely soley on PSP believe that their taxes already pay for the coverage.

By the wording of the proposal, communities who have their own part-time police force would not be imposed a fee.

(The portion of the Governor’s 2017-2018 budget proposal regarding Pennsylvania State Police begins on page 701. *Page 701 (E40-3) – Under “General Fund” – “Municipality Police Coverage” indicates the $63 million for 2017-2018)

UPDATE: Weeks after writing this piece, the proposal that finally went before the Legislature was changed to have only those communities with no police force and more than 4000 residents pay a $25 per resident fee.