Officials in Champion Township approved a police levy to go on the ballot this May. 

The five year, 1.6 mill levy will need final approval by voters. If passed, taxpayers will see an increase of $56 a year for a $100,000 home. 

Most of the new money would go towards wages for the police department's eight full-time and one part-time officers. A small portion would help cover the increase in cost of fees, fuel and other services due to inflation. 

“That's going to be to enhance the department and keep going with what we already have,” Chief Larry Skaggs of the Champion Township Police Department said. 

This is an additional levy that would go on top of the police levy that was just renewed last election. Township officials say because the old levy is based on outdated property values, it only brings in $63,000 a year.

“Today, it cost a lot more to run the department than 63 thousand dollars,” Rick York, a Champion Township Trustee said. “We will run out of money soon so we need this levy to pass.”

If the new levy fails, the department will need to find some way to balance things out. 

“I'm not going to speculate right now whether it's layoffs but you can kind of see where the moneys going to have to go someplace,” Chief Skaggs said. 

“We don't want to lose any officers and we don't want to lose our department,” Trustee York said. “These people work very hard to protect us. It's about time we step up and take care of them now.”

The new levy would generate $413,000 dollars a year for the department if passed.