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New Henry County Sheriff hopes to pass public safety tax

The public safety tax has failed to pass three times…newly appointed Sheriff Kerry Loncka is ready to try again for the fourth time.

CAMBRIDGE, Illinois-- Henry County just sworn in a new Sheriff and he's ready to hit the ground running to help out the county with it's financial needs.

On July 21st Kerry Loncka was officially sworn in as the new Henry County Sheriff.

"One of the things that needs to be focused on right away is the financial situation," says Lonkca.

The Henry county board implemented a zero deficit budget and Lonkca hopes to bring in revenue to help offset it.

Loncka says partly in helping bring more revenue to the county is passing the public safety tax.

The public safety tax has already failed to pass three times and will be presented again for the fourth time.

It will go toward keeping the staff levels up and buy new equipment for the sheriffs department.

"We're at bare bones for staffing, we really can't sustain cuts in any area if we do, it can be disastrous for not only the department staffing levels but safety in general for Henry County," says Lonkca.

Loncka says they hope to inform more people about the tax and what it does specifically.

It will be a half cent tax on things such as restaurant meals and hotel stays not on things like groceries.

"Its very minimal but it can do wonders for the county... that's one of the things that we're looking at as a source of revenue," says Loncka.

Vote for the public safety tax will be held in March.

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