Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

Upon reading the daily report from the Manteca Police Department it is plain to see that crime is running rampant at an alarming rate. Burglary is up, car theft up, cars vandalized, with thefts from stores, and misconduct of all sorts.

 All over town robbery is up, as is drug use with the influx of new people moving to here to call Manteca their home. This is disgusting and terrible. The only way to curtail this is to get more police officers on the streets. But this cannot be done without sufficient funding. Measure M was suppose to provide plenty of money for police and fire protection, but this turned out to be a fluke.

In order for public safety to be number one, more money is needed. Therefore our city council should give serious thought about placing on the ballot when the next election rolls around, a proposal to increase the current Measure M tax from its measly ½ cents to a full 1 cent and let the voters decide if they want to pay more for public safety. Another ½ cent is not going to bankrupt any one. This is a small price to pay for public safety. And now with a new fire station going to open in the not too far horizon it is plain to see that additional funding is going to be needed to operate the next fire station on a 24/7 basis operation. Forget the thought of brown outs, fire stations are built to operate on a full-time basis, not open today, closed tomorrow. Let’s fully staff this new station on a full-time basis. Let the voters decide if they want to pay more for public safety or let things keep dragging on as is the case now.

Let us all vote on increasing the Measure M tax to a full 1 cent if this gets on the ballot, when the next election rolls around. Let’s give the police chief and the fire chief the funds they need to fully staff their respected departments. Let’s make public safety number 1.

Fred Millner
Manteca
March 29, 2013