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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. John Pallone |
  
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Pallone introduces bill requiring fee for state police services
HARRISBURG, May 22 – State Rep. John Pallone, D-Westmoreland/Armstrong, introduced a bill this week that would require larger municipalities with no police force of their own to help pay the cost of having Pennsylvania State Police troopers provide law enforcement in their jurisdictions.
The bill would require municipalities with a population of more than 10,000 to pay $100 per resident to the state for law enforcement services provided by state police.
"Our state police provide basic law enforcement to hundreds of municipalities across the Commonwealth at an annual cost of more than $305 million," Pallone said. "My legislation would generate an estimated $40 million, which the state police could use to hire 4,000 more troopers to increase public safety for all state residents."
The legislation Pallone introduced this week is similar to a bill he introduced in the previous legislative season, but the new bill increases the population of municipalities that would fall under the legislation from 9,000 to 10,000 residents. Pallone said municipalities of 10,000 or more residents generally are large enough to support their own police force, yet several in Pennsylvania rely on the state police for law enforcement services.
"This amounts to a free ride because these larger municipalities don't have to levy taxes to maintain their own police force and they don't compensate the state police for performing the duties of a local police department," Pallone said. "It is unfair to other communities whose residents pay local taxes to support their own police force plus see a chunk of their state taxes go to the state police so they can provide services to these larger municipalities that, for whatever reasons, choose not to have a police department of their own."
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