P-I: "Nickels doesn't have the cash for more police"
Promising more police was the easy part.Post your suggestions in the comments.But Mayor Greg Nickels has yet to answer this crucial question about his recently announced plan to add 105 officers to the city's police force: How will he pay for it?
Something else Greg Nickels is responsible for is a nearly-useless drain on taxpayers. If voters ten years ago had not been so stupid, Nickels pet sound transit would not have been given the green light. There would be plenty of extra taxation capacity for all the local governments around here now.
Nickels should ice the ST2 plans - don't dump untold billions more down that rathole. Let taxes go to something like public safety that will help far more people than damn trains.
Posted by: sonofal on March 26, 2007 10:20 AMLet's not raise taxes to pay billions of dollars for one (or more) of the three schemes to replace the viaduct. Even a small fraction of those billions could be put to better use.
As I said in a January 29 post in a thread related to the police and crime:
"The issue of inadequate police presence is serious, and is a prime example of misplaced priorities. The city council and mayor contemplate spending billions on ill-conceived transportation plans.
"We need fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism, as opposed to wasteful programs and continual schemes to hike taxes.
"The entire budget of the Seattle police department is only around $212 million - a drop in the bucket compared to what the city leaders would have us waste on the tunnel.
"In all spheres of government bureaucracy, we must recognize that there is much wasteful spending on programs that are ineffective, obsolete, or no longer serve the purpose for which they were initially intended. Thus, program-by-program auditing and accountability is necessary, and we will often find that greater results can be accomplished with program reform and less actual spending.
"In Seattle, such a program-by-program audit would likely result in deep spending cuts in almost every program, with rare exceptions such as the police.
"Such a common sense approach would lead to more police presence, better crime prevention, improved public safety, lower taxes, a better business climate, and a big net decrease in spending.
"Unfortunately, the current city leadership is far from imagining public safety and reduced taxes as priorities."
(Originally Posted by: Steve Beren on January 25, 2007 03:09 PM )
Posted by: Steve Beren on March 26, 2007 10:22 AMYes! Tax me more! Tax me more! But buy the kinder gentler kind of police.
/sarc
Posted by: JCM on March 26, 2007 10:42 AMIt's always the threat of cuts in Fire/EMS service that brings the people out to vote for whatever tax increase the powers-that-be want. Cities throw whatever garbage they want into the budget and then they say "Oh, we don't have enough to keep the fire trucks rolling." It's a shame the way politics trumps public safety at every turn. Fire and police are among the few services that really deserve more money - but it all ends up going to useless elections, new office space for the "big boys" and other pet projects. The potholes never seem to get fixed either!
Posted by: suzihomemaker on March 26, 2007 11:11 AMI'd be interested in seeing what cuts Nickels has really made with the fire department - other than threats for votes.
Interesting that the Seattle Police Officers Guild is currently in negotiations with the city and Nickels tosses out a proposal for more officers; then later says there's no money. It's also interesting that routine patrol assignments - how and where officers are assigned to Seattle neighborhoods - is governed by negotiations. Negotiated patrols make it hard for a watch commander to change patrols when citizens cry "protection NOW."
Don't be surprised when Levy Nickels comes up with an announcement that patrol officers, police cruisers, and in turn protection of children are going to be cut if Seattle voters don't support a new levy for a newly proposed police budget. Heck, why not; it's only a latte (grande) a day and it's for the kids.
Nickels downsized several units from 4 person to 3. He has put the remodel of one of the City's worst stations on hold.
The firefighters Union actually negotiated to work for more hours, in order to regain the cuts that the Mayor has made. Today, the Seattle Firefighters go on many more runs, than in the seventies, but their on duty staffing has actually decreased.
I am not in favor of the continued budget by levy design that many cities, counties and states work under. But you are right, pet projects come first, and then Fire and Police are the ones being threatened to be cut. Why more people won't step up and say that, or why we continue to let that happen, I will never know.
Oh yeah, and IAFF supported kerry, an interesting fact... Last year, 34% of the money that the IAFF spent on politics, went to republicans. I can't find another Union that spent even half of that amount for R's.
Posted by: Union Fireman on March 26, 2007 01:56 PMi don't like bloated payrolls either, but first liners like police & fire i can support. they promote common sense civil order. they are practical. the other stuff is junk.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on March 26, 2007 02:23 PMFor an interesting look at IAFF expenditures do a Google search on : IAFF corruption.
Posted by: IAFF Supported Kerry on March 26, 2007 02:37 PMThat's like the Iraq war argument that the left likes to frequently use. Whatever the topic is - spending billions on a tunnel to replace the viaduct, a new monorail, million dollar toilets, whatever - it's always, "well you're wasting a trillion dollars on the Iraq war, so you can spend money on this!"
Posted by: Palouse on March 26, 2007 04:09 PMHere's an example of government partnership: open a "boilerroom" in City Hall full of identity theft felons to rip off people in credit card scams. Estimated revenue increase: 0.4 billion.
Problem solved!
Posted by: John Bailo on March 26, 2007 04:39 PMShouldn't be any suprise, they will soon take all that you own!
Their Hero Hugo Chavez is continuing his confiscation of private property just like Ron Sims) and is now positioned to take it all.
Emboldened by his landslide re-election win, the typically combative anti-U.S. leader has gone on the attack, deciding to strip a private opposition TV channel of its license and take over some major companies owned by foreign investors.
"Fatherland, socialism or death -- I take the oath," Chavez said.
Sound like our legislature, Seattle, and King County leaders in this state? I think so!
A lose lose lose scenerio that the people of Seattle will sure to vote higher taxes for!
He is a Billion dollar + a day spender, that is for sure.
Posted by: gs on March 26, 2007 05:18 PMThe only items that should be in the city budget are police, fire, streets & utilities. Everything else is fluff & should be cut to the bone or eliminated entirely. The best place to start would be the Executive Department & all its minions who think their little fiefdom is the most important one in the city, followed by the City Council & its expenditures.
All the city budgets have become way over-blown & the depts. should either be eliminated, combined or drastically cut to only the essentials.
Posted by: Clean House on March 26, 2007 06:31 PMThe unintended consequences of this socialist, secular progressive agenda where there are not enough cops is to enable the anarchists to thrive. Another unintended consequence is to further debilitate the economy, in an attempt to do their part in slowing the nation's economy so that they can enable a Democrat to get elected Pres. in 2008.
Posted by: KS on March 26, 2007 08:19 PMbum drinking apts, red light porta-prosti-toilets, Iraq votes by a city council, illegal alien don't ask zones/laws, hemp fests, uncountable plethora of micro-managing tax levies, etc etc.
i doubt many would miss those departments if they sunset tomorrow.
in fact, every city dept should sunset at some point & re-justify itself as better, needed still & why. very few would pass the test of "necessary"
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on March 27, 2007 02:30 PM