RACINE - The City Council has until Sept. 12 to decide if it wants a November referendum to increase the tax levy so it can hire more police, said Mayor Gary Becker.

At issue is a proposal to raise the city levy by $1 million per year for three years, thus allowing the city to hire 12 new police officers. Becker said he initially thought the City Council only had until today to decide but learned Tuesday that the Council has until September.

"We don't have to rush it," Becker said. "If we are going to raise an extra million, we are going to want to have a long discussion about where we are going to want to put those dollars."

The city staff is now writing a proposed referendum which the City Council will likely discuss at its Aug. 19 meeting, Becker said.

Alderman Greg Helding of the 11th District proposed the referendum Monday, saying the way to tackle increased crime in the city is with more police.

Police Chief Kurt Wahlen said he agrees it would help.

At community meetings, he said, Wahlen often hears people talking about the importance of foot patrols. But with frequent police calls in summer, they don't always have enough officers to provide foot patrols.

The referendum, if approved, would provide enough money for the foot patrols, Wahlen said, and also help ease the perception of rampant crime.

Staying at full staff is another problem the police department is facing, Wahlen said. The department is supposed to have a staff of 199, but with people leaving for retirement or other reasons, it is often below that number.

"I need to balloon past 199 on occasion so I can come back down to 199," Wahlen said.

He said if he could hire new police officers, they could help with the current crime spike. Then, through retirements, in three years the police force would naturally resume its normal level of 199 officers.

Becker said he would like to see the $1 million used for a combination of new police officers and community programs that get at the root of the problem.

Money could be used for crime diversion programs because even extra police cannot prevent everything, he said. For instance, he said two of the recent murders happened behind closed doors.

"So is a million going to change those? The answer is: Absolutely not," Becker said.

Still, Helding wants the money to go for more policing and nothing else. "As one constituent told me, 'I'm willing to go into my pocket a little more if it means more police,' " Helding said. "I'm not looking at a chance to fund a bunch of other programs."

If the money is not used one year, Helding said he would want to see it go into a special fund designated for police salaries in the future.

The city would need the referendum to pass if it wants the tax levy to increase by $1 million, said Racine Finance Director David Brown. Without the referendum, state statute limits the city to increasing the tax levy by 2 percent, or $815,000, not including money spent on repaying debt, Brown said.

In the past, the city would not have needed a referendum to increase the tax levy. But starting in the fall of 2005, a new state statute limited the amount by which municipalities could increase their tax levies without a referendum, Brown said.