You may think me a prophet — so prescient was the analysis in this space on the fake budget showdown between the police chief and the mayor. Not so.
Yes, I told you the police budget would not be slashed — “guaranteed” — and that the budget-cutting demand was staged to scare other departments into submission. It’s an obvious conclusion from observing how police are regarded and treated in this city.
The police always win.
So, when Chief Bill Blair “play fights” with Mayor Rob Ford only the uninitiated takes it seriously. The mayor campaigned on adding 100 cops to the force and then promptly gave offices a 11 per cent raise. He is not the one to tame the police budget.
Contrary to observable facts, the mayor and his allies claim the police have cut their budget, even though the numbers show the opposite. This tells you the lengths to which the administration will go to alter reality. More on that later.
The staged showdown has had the desired effect. The board of health is making cuts. Libraries could be reducing operating hours. The TTC is chopping bus service and cancelling orders for replacement vehicles. And cutting hundreds of staff when ridership is peaking at historical highs.
It was never wise to ask all departments to reduce spending at the same rate and to the same extent. Clearly, some departments can sustain a deeper cut than others, without eroding service to ridiculous levels. But the Ford administration chose to ask for a blanket 10 per cent cut — with a knowing wink and nudge to the favoured departments like the police. Even as citizens begged their councillors to protect vulnerable social services to the poor, the departments that primarily serve the middle class and business must know they are not in real danger.
Before the budget is set in January, other “favourites” will emerge. Word is leaking out of the finance department that fire services and, likely, EMS, won’t meet the 10 per cent target set by the city manager and mayor.
That puts greater pressure on other departments to find even more savings, or the city won’t achieve the target of some $360 million to close the budget hole.
Police have set the template. Watch fire and ambulance follow the same path.
Is the police department on a path to cutting its budget 10 per cent, even over two years? No.
On April 18, city departments and boards like the police, TTC, fire, received this directive: “We have set out the 2012 budget reduction target at 10 per cent of the 2011 net operating budget in all cases except for fleet services and Exhibition Place.”
Attached was an appendix detailing the exact target cut. For police it was 10 per cent of $933.8 million, or $93.38 million.
That’s the figure Councillor Michael Thompson, acting on behalf of what he thought the mayor wanted, insisted on extracting from the police budget. Until last week when he and the police board approved a new budget of $936 million. Instead of $93 million less, the police got millions more.
There is an argument for boosting the police budget. “Police keep us safe. They’re special. They don’t generate revenues. Almost 85 per cent of their budget goes to salary and benefits so cuts directly reduce staffing. Hence, they are exempt from the cuts.”
The majority of Torontonians would swallow that line of thinking, no doubt.
Instead, in the face of a total capitulation to the police, the Ford administration claims it forced them to be more cost-conscious than at any other time in history.
Heavens. This insults the intelligence.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
Yes, I told you the police budget would not be slashed — “guaranteed” — and that the budget-cutting demand was staged to scare other departments into submission. It’s an obvious conclusion from observing how police are regarded and treated in this city.
The police always win.
So, when Chief Bill Blair “play fights” with Mayor Rob Ford only the uninitiated takes it seriously. The mayor campaigned on adding 100 cops to the force and then promptly gave offices a 11 per cent raise. He is not the one to tame the police budget.
Contrary to observable facts, the mayor and his allies claim the police have cut their budget, even though the numbers show the opposite. This tells you the lengths to which the administration will go to alter reality. More on that later.
The staged showdown has had the desired effect. The board of health is making cuts. Libraries could be reducing operating hours. The TTC is chopping bus service and cancelling orders for replacement vehicles. And cutting hundreds of staff when ridership is peaking at historical highs.
It was never wise to ask all departments to reduce spending at the same rate and to the same extent. Clearly, some departments can sustain a deeper cut than others, without eroding service to ridiculous levels. But the Ford administration chose to ask for a blanket 10 per cent cut — with a knowing wink and nudge to the favoured departments like the police. Even as citizens begged their councillors to protect vulnerable social services to the poor, the departments that primarily serve the middle class and business must know they are not in real danger.
Before the budget is set in January, other “favourites” will emerge. Word is leaking out of the finance department that fire services and, likely, EMS, won’t meet the 10 per cent target set by the city manager and mayor.
That puts greater pressure on other departments to find even more savings, or the city won’t achieve the target of some $360 million to close the budget hole.
Police have set the template. Watch fire and ambulance follow the same path.
Is the police department on a path to cutting its budget 10 per cent, even over two years? No.
On April 18, city departments and boards like the police, TTC, fire, received this directive: “We have set out the 2012 budget reduction target at 10 per cent of the 2011 net operating budget in all cases except for fleet services and Exhibition Place.”
Attached was an appendix detailing the exact target cut. For police it was 10 per cent of $933.8 million, or $93.38 million.
That’s the figure Councillor Michael Thompson, acting on behalf of what he thought the mayor wanted, insisted on extracting from the police budget. Until last week when he and the police board approved a new budget of $936 million. Instead of $93 million less, the police got millions more.
There is an argument for boosting the police budget. “Police keep us safe. They’re special. They don’t generate revenues. Almost 85 per cent of their budget goes to salary and benefits so cuts directly reduce staffing. Hence, they are exempt from the cuts.”
The majority of Torontonians would swallow that line of thinking, no doubt.
Instead, in the face of a total capitulation to the police, the Ford administration claims it forced them to be more cost-conscious than at any other time in history.
Heavens. This insults the intelligence.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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