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Spelman: Austin police soak up too much of local budget

Thanks to Austin City Councilmember Bill Spelman for making a point that our capital city media have been loathe to acknowledge over the last decade, as reported in the Austin Chronicle:"Over the last 10 years, public safety spending per person, in real terms, has gone up by nearly 50 percent since the year 2000," a 45% increase from $365 to $529. "Spending on everything else in the General Fund, has gone up by 2 percent since 2000," from a little over $175 to $178."We've taken all the new money we've gotten from property taxes, sales taxes, and what have you, and put it all into public safety. And none of it into parks, libraries, health and human services, development services, and so on. It's all gone to public safety. That kind of big decision is not the sort of decision we ever have the chance to make on budget day...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 18, 2010 (boomark / email).