LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- As Metro Sheriff Doug Gillespie gets ready to lobby lawmakers for the release of a quarter-cent sales tax to help his department, one group is criticizing the idea, saying many Metro officers are already paid too much.
The conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute released its annual critique of officer earnings, and it has even been posting what it calls "exorbitant" officer salaries every day on Twitter.
But Metro says some of those salaries being posted are by officers who've just retired, those who took out cash payouts for such things as earned overtime.
The sheriff wants lawmakers to release the quarter-cent sales tax and allow it to be placed in Metro's general fund, but NPRI says that money was supposed to be for new officers only.
"Initially this was promoted or pitched as a means of putting more officers on the street, but now they're looking for flexibility on how to spend the money,” said NPRI president Andy Matthews, “which is going to mean rather than resulting in more officer, (it will be) the sustaining of already bloated salaries."
Gillespie plans to lobby lawmakers in Carson City on the issue sometime next week.
