Debate over 60/40 public safety tax split exposes long-term funding crunch for police and fire

Excelsior Springs, Mo. (January 11, 2026) — Excelsior Springs City Council voted 4-1 on Dec. 15 to reallocate the city’s Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) revenue, shifting the long-standing split from an informal 50/50 practice to 60% for the Fire Department and 40% for the Police Department.

Supporters described the move as a practical response to the escalating cost of fire apparatus, where a single pumper can now approach $1 million and a ladder truck can run into the millions. Those who opposed the funding modification argued the shift will take roughly $140,000 a year from police operations without meaningfully solving the long-term challenges facing both departments.

City leaders and both chiefs agreed on one point, even as they differed on the vote itself: the 60/40 debate is a symptom of a larger financial issue, public safety costs are rising faster than the revenues intended to cover them.

What the Public Safety Sales Tax is, and what it can pay for

The Public Safety Sales Tax is a voter-approved, one-half cent (0.5%) local sales tax collected by the Missouri Department of Revenue and distributed to the city, with revenues restricted to public safety purposes.

State enabling legislation approved in 2003 authorized Excelsior Springs to place the question on the ballot and spelled out broad eligible uses, including equipment, salaries, benefits, and facilities for police, fire, and emergency medical services providers. The law also included ballot language and required the revenue be used for public safety.

City Manager Molly McGovern said the tax has been framed locally as a way to “train, retain, and equip” police and fire, and that the original promise included a “no supplanting” concept, meaning general fund support should not be reduced simply because the dedicated tax exists.

The numbers: about $1.1 million in sales tax revenue, plus use tax

McGovern said PSST revenue is currently running about $1.1 million, with an additional roughly $200,000 in use tax, plus investment earnings and proceeds from the sale of old vehicles and equipment.

She said the overall public safety tax budget this year totals about $1.6 million, which also includes marijuana tax revenue that flows into public safety-related accounts.

Under the new allocation, the practical impact is a shift of about $140,000 per year from police to fire.

Councilman McGovern: How the 60/40 idea surfaced

Councilman John McGovern, a former Excelsior Springs police chief and the leading advocate for the change, said the concept emerged during a council retreat in early fall, where he believed the group had reached consensus to implement a 60/40 allocation in the next budget cycle. He said he later informed both chiefs after the retreat and before the proposal returned to the agenda.

McGovern said the basic rationale is that even a well-funded police vehicle plan does not compare to the replacement cost of major fire apparatus. In his view, a modest shift is justified and can be reversed if it proves unworkable.

He also said his own math suggested a larger shift would be needed to fully match apparatus needs, but he supported 60/40 as a smaller, more tolerable reduction for police.

McGovern framed the 60/40 change as a near-term pressure valve, not a perfect fix, but a step he believed the city had to take to avoid more painful options in the next budget cycle. He said the council was looking at growing public safety costs and a limited set of choices for keeping both departments operating without disruption. “If we didn’t act now, we’d be required to look at laying off employees, making cuts, or raising taxes on the citizens; none of which I’m okay with,” McGovern said. 

In his view, shifting more of the existing public safety tax toward the fire department was the most realistic immediate move because it helps the city start building capacity for major apparatus purchases while keeping the solution inside current revenues,  rather than making cuts or reducing staff. He also described the change as something the council can revisit if it creates unintended consequences.

While fellow councilmember Spear recollected the discussion differently, he shared that his opposition vote stems from the long-term picture of costs. He said he initially viewed the idea as plausible until he reviewed the costs over a longer window.

Police Chief: likely cuts to tech

Police Chief Gregory Dull said neither he nor his staff were asked to analyze the impact before the council acted, calling that the most disappointing part of the process.

Dull said the department is still working to understand the final impact as the city’s budget and purchasing schedule develop, but he warned that the allocation shift could force tradeoffs among body cameras, analytic tools, vehicle replacement, and other recurring-cost public safety technologies.

He pointed to immediate projects that could be delayed or scaled back, including crime and data tools, and said the department may need to reevaluate its use of license plate reader (LPR) cameras and other recurring-cost systems to keep higher-priority purchases on track.

Dull said the department was moving forward with a request for dash cameras and body-worn cameras, describing body cameras as a priority for transparency, accountability, and operational efficiency, even as budgets tighten.

Dull said he understands why fire’s big-ticket purchases draw attention, but he argued police costs add up fast because the department is equipping and cycling a much larger fleet. “When you look at all of the equipment and everything that goes into our vehicles … there’s not a big difference between what we spend and what the fire department spends on vehicles. Ours is spread out over 20 vehicles, and theirs is spread out over less than half that,” Dull said. 

He added that the averages of the full buildout cost, “the cost of the vehicle, sirens, lights, cages, and wiring,” come out to around 75,000 per vehicle, and with police typically needing to buy three vehicles a year, he said, “the numbers get a lot closer than what you think.”

He also emphasized that a significant share of police PSST funding is tied up in personnel. He said roughly 13.5% of police personnel costs are currently covered by PSST, and that long-term sustainability may require shifting more of that expense back to the general fund.

Fire chief: apparatus costs require saving “every dime”

Fire Chief Joe Maddick said the fire department’s PSST strategy has been to avoid spending the fund on smaller items whenever possible because major apparatus replacement costs overwhelm annual allocations.

Maddick said the fire department’s basic approach will remain the same: saving as much PSST funding as possible toward the next major apparatus purchase, because the replacement numbers are too large to solve with one-year budgeting.

Maddick said the last ambulances purchased were about $365,000 each, and the city replaces ambulances roughly every three years. He said pumpers now run about $1 million, and the department’s ladder truck replacement cost could reach $2.5 million to $2.7 million, requiring years of savings to prepare.

Like Dull, Maddick said he was not consulted specifically on the 60/40 allocation change, although he regularly discusses future purchases and funding strategies with city leadership.

Maddick also described shared costs that sit alongside the allocation debate, including radio systems and maintenance expenses tied to regional communications infrastructure that police and fire departments split.

Public safety radios aren’t a one-time purchase, Maddick said; they come with ongoing costs tied to the larger regional communications infrastructure the city relies on. That includes system access, equipment programming, repairs, replacement cycles for mobile and portable radios, and the maintenance that keeps radios compatible with regional partners during mutual aid responses.

Because both departments depend on that same communications backbone to function day-to-day, Maddick said those expenses are typically treated as shared costs and split between police and fire. He noted that as radio systems age, require upgrades, or face vendor price increases, those shared costs can rise even in years when neither department is making a major new purchase, adding another layer of pressure to the public safety sales tax conversation beyond the headline 60/40 allocation.

City manager: warns of a narrowing window

City Manager Molly McGovern said she did not feel moving to 60/40 would address the bigger issue. She believes the underlying math suggests the city is approaching a point where neither department will be able to keep up with the pace of replacement needs without a larger policy change.

In her view, changing the split does not solve the fundamental problem: both sides face inflation and rising fixed costs, from vehicle pricing to long-term contracts and system fees. She said she has warned of a “five-year window” where balances could begin to deplete to the point major purchases become impossible.

McGovern also noted that as the market has evolved, the city has increasingly relied on PSST to cover costs that are difficult to absorb elsewhere, including ambulance purchases that she said are not realistic to fund through general capital improvement lines.

Stephen Spear: $140,000 doesn’t solve fire department’s challenge

Spear said he voted against the change because he could not get a clear explanation of what new need justified altering a long-standing allocation, especially with budgets already planned.

He also argued the shift doesn’t meaningfully solve the fire department’s apparatus problem while clearly reducing police flexibility, particularly when police fund items the fire department also benefits from through shared systems and support structures.

Even if the council views the change as temporary, Spear said reversing it later can be politically and practically difficult once departments are forced to build new budgets around the new baseline.

Spear said he considers the discussion ongoing and expects the council to revisit the issue as the real-world effects become clearer.

Why fire trucks are getting more expensive, and why it matters locally

Local officials’ cost concerns track a broader national trend: major fire apparatus prices and delivery times have surged in recent years, drawing scrutiny from policymakers and the fire service community. Reuters has reported that consolidation in the fire truck manufacturing industry, combined with inflation and supply chain disruptions, has contributed to price increases and multi-year waits for some departments.

In April 2025, U.S. Senators Jim Banks and Elizabeth Warren publicly raised concerns that private equity-driven consolidation has driven up costs and contributed to shortages, citing a shrinking pool of dominant manufacturers.

For Excelsior Springs, where the public safety sales tax is a primary vehicle for replacing major rolling stock, those national pressures intensify the local question: whether reallocating an existing pie is enough, or whether the city will need a different long-term funding approach to avoid deferred replacements and service impacts.

What happens next: committee oversight and budget reality

Even with the new 60/40 allocation in place, there seems to be a shared conclusion across City Hall and both departments: the vote may rebalance pressure between police and fire, but it does not resolve the underlying challenge. Apparatus, vehicles, technology, and personnel costs continue to climb faster than the half-cent tax was built to absorb, and leaders on all sides said the city will need a longer-term plan, beyond percentage splits, to keep pace with public safety needs in the years ahead.