The Lawrence chamber of commerce is urging voters to approve a new sales tax that would fund a nearly $28 million police headquarters facility.

Chamber leaders said their board of directors unanimously voted to support the tax, in part, because it believes the city would be forced to implement a large property tax increase to fund a police facility in the future, if voters reject the sales tax on Nov. 4.

“The police department is facing a compelling need, and we think the city has demonstrated that,” said Hugh Carter, a former Lawrence city commissioner who is now the chamber’s vice president of external affairs. “We think the community is going to have to deal with it in the short term. We think this decision comes down to the best way to pay for it.”

The city has proposed a 0.2 percent sales tax that would last for a maximum of nine years, but could end earlier if sales tax revenues come in greater than expected.

Carter said the chamber favors a sales tax over a property tax because a sales tax will do a better job of taxing everybody that relies on police services, such as Kansas University students. The city estimates that about 30 percent of the city’s sales tax receipts come from consumers who live outside the city limits.

“We believe that public safety touches everyone in our community and, therefore, a sales tax is the most equitable solution for funding the new police facility,” Mike McGrew, the chairman of the chamber’s board of directors, wrote in a letter to members.

But chamber leaders took several days to reach their conclusions. New chamber president and CEO Larry McElwain previously has expressed concerns about the community’s tax rates. McElwain on Friday said the chamber received input from a broad cross section of its membership and found that members believe the tax issue needs to be balanced with the need for police facility improvements.

The police headquarters plan has drawn some opposition in the community, with concerns including its nearly $28 million price tag, questions about whether the city can afford the project after the multimillion dollar Rock Chalk Park sports complex project, and opposition to the city’s selection of a$2.25 million piece of property along the Kansas Turnpike to house the facility.

The proposed site will take one of Lawrence’s few vacant pieces of industrially zoned property along the turnpike off the industrial market. But Carter said the chamber board didn’t go into great detail on the proposed site or other specifics of the city’s plan.

“We really tried to look at the proposal as a whole, and we feel like this is the best way forward,” Carter said.