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City Council Deliberates on Cops vs. Carrots

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Tue, 2009-12-08 10:56 — The Conductor
Topic: 
Politics
Places: 
Minneapolis
Organizations: 
Government

The Minneapolis City Council is hashing out a 2010 budget that will include both tax increases and cuts to core services. The latest compromise includes laying off 25 cops, but keeping 27 civilian Crime Prevention Specialists (CPS):

The budget writers dipped into funding for some of [Mayor] Rybak's favored programs to keep civilian crime prevention specialists working in neighborhoods. Money was taken away from such programs as high school career centers, micro grants to encourage homegrown food, and foreclosure prevention efforts.

"It was ugly work because there were no easy cuts to make," one budget panel member, Sandra Colvin Roy, told her constituents in a newsletter.

Yeah Sandy, tough choice. Cops or backyard gardens? Hmmm…If somebody breaks into my house, I could throw subsidized tomatoes at them. No, maybe police are more important.

It’s not surprising that the vacuous buffoon who would be Governor thought it was an essential City function to give people handouts to grow vegetables. It is out of character, however, for the Council to actually act like adults and cut that item from the budget.