More cuts for Philadelphia police

    The last round required not hiring new officers

    Philadelphia’s Police, Fire, and Prisons Commissioners are working through a difficult task–cutting their budgets even more.

    The city’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Everett Gillison, says he told Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to figure out how to cut an additional six million dollars from the Police budget. That’s on top of four million dollars in cuts already in the works. Gillison says tax revenues keep dropping.

    “We are looking at a negative fund balance given what the Council has passed to date. And we can’t go into the next fiscal year basically knowing that we might run out of money.”

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    The previous cuts forced the police to not replace 200 retiring officers. Councilman Frank Rizzo says the Police Department has a “fat” budget and he believes another $6 million could be cut without layoffs. Rizzo accuses the Administration of pushing reductions because City Council did not approve the proposed sugary drinks tax.

    Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Gillison says he also told the Fire Commissioner to figure out how to cut about $250,000. The Prisons Commissioner where to cut an additional $1 million. The Fire and Prison Commissioners had already removed millions from their budgets.

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