Savings from Police Budget Rollback Put Towards Other Items
Monday, February 25, 2013 @ 4:48 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Council for the City of Prince George has rolled back the Police budget to $20.4 million, meaning there is another $1.2 million that could be distributed to other items.
Council was presented with these possibilities:
· One time funding of $60 thousand to offset the one time burden of the permissive tax exemption.
· One time funding of $200 thousand for the new Crime Reduction Task Force
· One time funding of $200 thousand for road rehabilitation,
· One time funding of $50 thousand for Parks department
· On going annual funding of $54,489.00 to the Parks department, and
· On going funding of $680 thousand for road rehabilitation.
This would mean two or three people could be hired for the parks department and the boost to the road rehab budget for this year would be approaching $4.5 million.
Councillor Koehler said he could not support these moves, because the current tax hike is sitting at about 3.5% “ I think it should be around 2% so I will not support the spending of this money.”
The other members of Council in attendance, (Wilbur, Stolz, Skakun, Hall, Everitt and the Mayor) voted in favour of the expenditures.
Comments
So what is going to happen if the RCMP don’t lose as many man hours due to health related issues etc that resulted in these funds being available?
Please don’t hire anyone else. We pay enough taxes as it is; we can’t afford to have more people gorging themselves at the public trough.
This would mean two or three people could be hired for the parks department and the boost to the road rehab budget for this year would be approaching $4.5 million
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I notice in the summer months employees spending a lot of time sitting in their trucks up in Connought Park. They have one employee for each park they cut the grass if its needed or not.
For all the parks that we have one employee with a truck to haul the mower would be able to cut all the grass. The grass is cut to short as it is and all that thrives are the weeds that are never controlled.
In other cities the grass is 3 to 4 inches tall. This discourages weed growth through a natural processe.
Cheers
Cheers
And we could use some of the savings for foreign travel.
Cheers
Does city hall’s “Leaf electric car” come with a lawnmower attachment? If not, it should.
The inmates are running the asylum…
You didn’t need a crystal ball to see this coming. All other departments spend every dollar……that is why you see snow removal equipment plowing dry roads! The police under spend by $2 million and get it taken away for next year! Interesting the city manager at the detachment is an accountant, bean counter, paid by the city. Seems to me she is the real Chief of Police…….tail wagging the dog ! Next thing to happen will be a reduction in officers because of their success in reducing crime. It is about time the City starts looking at the Fire Dept…….overpaid to sleep !
Crime reduction task force? 200,000 ?? Redundant.
Maybe it should be used to help reduce debt, not manufacture more. Or maybe it could be used to hire someone to organize snow removal, (only plow if there is snow on the street, they could also oversee the park grass cutting needs, and bathroom cleaning needs. It is time to quite manufacturing unneeded services, and use the people already in place to get the job done.(please no more job creation at city hall)
Maybe it should be used to help reduce debt, not manufacture more. Or maybe it could be used to hire someone to organize snow removal, (only plow if there is snow on the street, they could also oversee the park grass cutting needs, and bathroom cleaning needs. It is time to quite manufacturing unneeded services, and use the people already in place to get the job done.(please no more job creation at city hall)
It is time to quite manufacturing unneeded services, and use the people already in place to get the job done.(please no more job creation at city hall)
What happens if something bad happens in PG and you need extra police to cover it off. What if the Canucks win the Stanley Cup and the people of Prince George start a riot. Who’s paying for the extra policing costs?
PGguy, we won’t have to worry about that scenario in our lifetime!!!
How can the RCMP be underbudgeted when they are building a new $48mil facility. Perhaps this surplus could be used to help pay for that. Keep the funding level and pay the dept the RCMP building is putting us. Not sure what the City’s share of the 48 is but it must be substantial.
Seems to me that the RCMP are being punished for coming in under budget. I guess this is why managers always spent foolishly when it comes to the end of their fiscal year. If you don’t spend it they will take it away. Award them for coming in under budget don’t penalize them. Perhaps the RCMP should have hired LM engineering or KPMG to do a core review to figure out why they came under budget so that this never happens again.
“I guess this is why managers always spent foolishly when it comes to the end of their fiscal year. If you don’t spend it they will take it away.”
This true and just don’t get it.
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