What Price for Policing?
Monday, February 25, 2013 @ 3:58 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The proposed 2013 Police Services budget for the City of Prince George is back before Council later today. It is the only service category that has yet to be approved in this year’s budget.
In the past, the Police Services budget has ended the year with a surplus. The surplus has always been returned to the City.
Council is proposing the budget be trimmed back to the actual amounts that have been spent. (click here, for previous story)
In a budget meeting set for 3:30 this afternoon, City staff and RCMPSuperintendent Eric Stubbs will explain why there have been surpluses in thepast, and why that “cushion” needs to be in place.
The reports to Council outline how the budget is for the full number of officers approved for Prince George, but, because of maternity or paternity leaves, transfers, openings that have not yet been filled, there can be a surplus. Many of those scenarios cannot be predicted. Also not predictable is the number of complex homicide investigations which the detachment could face in any given year. Such investigations can require overtime, special analysis by labs or other expert organizations. The price tag for such investigations can climb very quickly.
Superintendent Stubbs says rolling back the budget would, in effect, only ensure funding for a maximum of 109 officers. That, says Supt. Stubbs, could have serious implications for a variety of initiatives including the downtown enforcement unit and the new domestic violence unit.
There is no mention in either report of what impact a rollback would have on any plans that may be forthcoming from the Mayor’s Task Force on Crime reduction, a committee struck to launch initiatives aimed at getting Prince George off the top of MacLean’s magazine’s list of crime riddled cities in Canada.
Comments
Cut the surplus in half. Let the RCMP keep half for a safety factor.Use the rest to fix the roads.!!!
Good idea. I noticed that the hurry up paving job on Domano is already cracking up. Look like we got real quality work there!
Wait to hear what the cops have to say. I trust them to manage my tax dollars more efficiently, than I do our F&A led current council. Tread carefully on this one.
I don’t get how this being played as somehow free money. Instead of letting the surplus flow into the next year which helps keep future taxes low, our new mayor and council want to increase spending and somehow are suggesting (or worse, they think) it is found money and it won’t result in higher taxes?
Any increase in spending will ensure higher taxes, maybe not this year but you can guarantee it will lead to higher taxes down the road.
Has no one on Council or in the media figured this out? This isn’t money that was found in the corner of the couch. These are tax dollars that go unspent and remain in the city coffers as a buffer for the future.
In other words, if for what ever reason, the money isn’t needed to provide for the contracted cost of the RCMP, it stays in the city accounts. Kinda like keeping a higher balance in the savings account that reduces the need for tax hikes the following year. Or as was the case this year, it comes in handy to cover costs when the snow removal budget is exceeded and there is no money in the reserve.
It is amazing that this is being largely driven by politicians who call themselves conservatives. This is neither a conservative approach to budgeting nor is it a tightening of the belt. In fact, it is just the opposite. It is risky budgeting that may require cuts to policing and its an increase in spending that will result in a tax increase.
It is bad enough that some media haven’t figured this out, it’s even worse that some on council are completely oblivious to this reality.
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