CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — Corpus Christi voters are deciding whether to continue a sales tax that helps fund the city's police department.
The ballot question would continue the city's Crime Control and Prevention District — along with its one-eighth-cent sales tax — for another 10 years.
Police Chief Mike Markle said the crime control district has been in place since 1997. Right now, the one-eighth-cent sales tax funds about 15% of the police department's staffing.
Previously, Markle said the city used some of the money for programs like crime reduction units, directed patrol officers and a graffiti task force. But now, he said the funding is primarily used for police officers.
"It's tremendous. Again, 78 officers. That's eight full shifts of officers answering calls for service in the field. We're a busy agency. We're a large agency. We're number eighth in the state, so we have a high volume of calls, about 460,000 calls a year," Markle said.
If the vote doesn't pass, Markle said the department would have to reshuffle operations, and service levels would go down.
As for layoffs, Markle said the funding cut wouldn't immediately impact officers, but as many as 78 of them could lose their jobs over time.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page. Subscribe today!
