Camden Sheriff Talks Tax Increase On Upcoming August Ballot

We’re a week away from learning whether or not much of the Lake Area wants to raise taxes for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office.

A one-quarter-cent sales tax increase is on the ballot for August 3^rd.

“Right now we have officers we losing…making only like $32,000 as the top pay for Camden County. And I have jailers and dispatchers who are only making $14 an hour” Says Sheriff Tony Helms, “the lowest paying county we could find is Pulaski, which pays $15.75 an hour…and they just past a tax so they may be going up too, I don’t know.”

He tells KRMS News the only way to get money for raises, more deputies and their equipment is to raise the county’s sales tax “well everybody’s heard it, everybody’s aware of it OH my gosh we’re up 60% in our sales tax! Well, let me tell you what comes with a 60% increase in sales tax….60% more calls, 60% more people are here.”

Helms also says he wants to give raises to the deputies he does have “the raises will keep people here. Right now we’re losing people to other counties! Every county virtually around us pays more than we do.”

Sheriff Helms was interviewed by Christian Blood on the KRMS Morning Magazine.