WEST BEND — Gas prices hit $5.19 per gallon in much of West Bend on Monday, and have led to some steep prices at the pump. The West Bend Police Department isn’t immune to the the rise in gas prices, but won’t have to worry about the tab until the end of the year.
Lt. Brian McAndrews of the West Bend Police Department said everything is business as usual for West Bend patrol officers right now. McAndrews said that they haven’t told anyone to drive around less due to the price of gas.
He added that it simply isn’t an option to have the patrol officers try to save the department some money by using less gas, because they are needed out in the community whether they are just patrolling or responding to a call.
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It also helps that the Police Department doesn’t pay gas the same way as the average citizen for a couple reasons, McAndrews said.
First, the department doesn’t pay tax on gas. While there is “no state sales or business tax, or local taxes on gasoline,” there is a 30.9 cents per gallon excise tax rate, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation department overview. The total the average citizen ends up paying, however, is 32.9 cents per gallon in taxes after the state’s petroleum cleanup program fee is added.
Secondly, the Police Department is able to work out a discounted rate with some of the larger gas station chains, McAndrews said.
Finally, when the annual budget is set a budget estimate for gas pricing is used to allocate how much money is needed to pay for gas. But, because the price of gas has risen past that estimate doesn’t mean that the department will have to come up with more money at the time they are filling up their tanks.
McAndrews said at the end of the year if the amount of money spent on gas for the department exceeds the budget estimate, the department will go before the West Bend Common Council to get more funds to pay the excess amount.
This way the department doesn’t have to worry about moving funds around during the year to pay for something like gas when the prices rise.
McAndrews said this ensures that department programming isn’t affected, and that the department is able to pay for everything that is laid out in their budget at the beginning of the year.
The department will have to explain to the common council if it goes over budget on fuel and needs funds to pay their remaining balance for gas. However, McAndrews said that shouldn’t be an issue.