Marijuana tax funding could be used to fund new Phoenix Police Dept.

PHOENIX, Ore. — The City of Phoenix is considering funding a new police department with money collected through the City’s marijuana tax. The current building was expected to be upgraded seven years ago, but due to the recession, Police Chief Derek Bowker said the project was delayed.

“The City of Phoenix, just like everybody else, 2007, 2008, 2009 during the recession, there was no funding, so it was really put on the back burner,” Chief Bowker said.

During a property swap in 2006, the police department settled into its current home with the intention of moving to a bigger facility within five years. Looking to the future, Chief Bowker noted something needs to change. A study by the City shows the boundaries of Phoenix will be expanding, and the police force will need to as well.

“Our department’s definitely going to grow to almost double its current size, and we are currently in a building that’s about a third of the size of the building we need right now,” Chief Bowker said.

For that reason, Interim City Manager Dave Kanner is working to make a new department a top priority.

“The police station is essentially a 1,700 square foot manufactured building that was intended to be temporary,” Kanner said.

Kanner started looking for funding that could help the project get a start.

“The City of Phoenix, like virtually every city in Oregon that has a marijuana tax had no idea how much the tax would actually generate,” Kanner said. “So we just put a placeholder number in the budget of $15,000.”

The tax money that came in was nearly ten times more. The City is estimating the collection will be around $147,000.

“Since the marijuana tax can only be spent on among other things, police, I’m proposing that we budget all of our marijuana tax money for a new police station,” Kanner said.

The proposed goal is to pay for the new department without the help of residents. Kanner said this proposal is preliminary; It will have to go through City Council and the next City Manager.