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Highland considers major public-safety funding choices as departments seek wage and staffing increases
Summary
Public safety departments requested significant ongoing increases driven by wages and staffing changes. Staff presented two revenue options to keep property- and sales-tax support for public safety at the council’s target: a roughly $7.50-per-month public-safety fee or a 38% property-tax-rate increase.
City staff told the council that public-safety budget requests for FY26 are the largest single driver of proposed general-fund increases and that pay and staffing changes are the main components of the request.
Erin and finance staff said the police request is driven mainly by wages; the fire department seeks wage increases and changes to some positions to create engineer classifications for apparatus staffing and maintenance. Staff described a plan to increase daily firefighter staffing toward a 9-to-10 person target to improve first-response capacity. Staff…
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