Posted on 02/24/2011 9:37:34 AM PST by katiedidit1
Sketching out a worst-case scenario of San Jose's budget meltdown, city officials warned this week that they could lay off as many as 349 police officers and 145 firefighters, slashing close to a quarter of the city's public safety employees.
The city is also looking at millions of dollars in other cuts, including shutting off neighborhood
streetlights for much of the night and eliminating some gang-prevention programs.
There has never been a major layoff of police officers in the city's modern history. But last year San Jose laid off 49 firefighters, and this is the second year in a row the Police Department has faced layoffs.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
This the typical goobermint ploy when they want more tax money. Fire the police ! Fire the firefighters !
The heck with that - fire the planners, fire mayoral and city council staff, the BS officials that are there to “enhance revenue”, all the public parasites that drain city coffers and produce NOTHING !
Yep. Next the police chief will testify that unless they get more $$ all citizens will be at grave risk. This tactic has worked well for police and fire departments, but I don't think it will work anymore. The truth is that police agencies have been spoiled for years will rich salaries as well as lots of federal grants. For example, most cities have SWAT teams that train a lot but who rarely respond to calls. They are not needed!! The SWAT Team should consist of street officers who are trained and able switch hats in case of a barricaded suspect incident.
Unions are legal racketeering.
An illegitimate system always seeks to make the first cuts in the most visible symbols, or the very most legitimate functions of government.
This is to maximize the pain, thereby preventing additional changes to the system.
Systems are programmed for survival, sure, but corrupt systems passed through and learned from the corrupting process —these will do ANYTHING to remain the same.
When there’s no money, there is no paychecks.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
They lay them off because they are the problem! I just looked at our county salaries ( Contra Costa Co, CA). The highest paid people ( excepting the doctors in the county hospital whose last names you can’t pronounce) are the county firefighters. The average firefighter makes more than the county administrator, the DA, and most of their deputies, and the sheriff’s dept., is right behind! Try $250,000 per year on a base salary of about $100k. And most of them have other businesses they run when they are not on duty. These guys work the OT/Sickleave game to the max. Firefighters make so much money that they have moved into the affluent communities and have run successfully for the local fire boards. So now, just like everywhere else, they control both sides of the negotiating table. And they have no shame about what they are doing! Our local fire chief retired recently at 51. his last year’s salary was $188k, his first year’s pension was $286k. If he lives to 80, you do the math on what we will shell out. And that does not include his medical benes for him and his spouse until both of them die!
But we still have money for artists and Obamacare right?
excellent reply, our Founders would agree with you. Liberty is being lost at an accelerating rate.
Go ahead, lay them off. Their wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, mom, dad, sons, daughters live there and their security will be comprimised while parks are still open and the city’s Taj Mahal’s don’t miss a beat. They live there, so if they think there is no need for the police and firefighters, well, they have to deal witht he aftermath.
That would work. And I agree with you regarding the nepotism and patronage jobs in the government -- there seems to be a lot of that at all levels (like that lady 'official' in Oakland who had the police called off from going after her gangster nephew).
I was just reacting to the list of other jobs you listed (e.g., Libraries, parks, etc) -- which are merely luxuries and should be culled from the government's budget (IF we were rolling in dough it would be one thing to consider - but we aren't ... nor should the government ever be 'rolling in dough' -- because its our dough)...
I don’t much care about the rest. But once you shoot your utilities in the head your quality of life goes downhill fast. Think mass cholera outbreaks and such. No one in your life does more to benefit mankind than sanitation/utility workers. Not doctors, or anyone else. BTW I am not one. Merely a civil engineer.
I know they are important facilities, but usually they are way overstaffed, via nepotism and back scratching. They could be privatized................
sure, gon’t cut any socialist programs
I work in liberal San Jose. How about volunteer Fire and Police service? When you have no $, can’t keep spending! City should call Jerry Brown and ask for a bailout - LOL
This country got by just fine with out police for three hundred years. Worried about your safety? Get a gun and balls. Got a lot of stuff? Protect it. Or hire others to protect it. Can not afford it? Sell some some stuff, you got too much stuff. Or move. Or not. You are an adult. Why should others be taxed to protect your stuff?
Police are welfare security. They are to security what welfare housing projects are to real neighbors.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind a couple of years of lawlessness( of a type ). Let the scum, dolts, expose themselves so that they can be shotgun’d down and bleed in the streets, business, and homes.
Of course naturally this will result in starving lawyers, laid off judges, prison hack jailers and legions of time serving, clock punching, paper shufflers of the security welfare state. Good.
You know, you'd think the law & order types and the cop cheerleaders on FR would have gotten wise to the game after Bill Clinton & Eliot Spitzer, or now the current crop of Too Big To Prosecute banksters.
Law is for the little people, and as they lard on more & more "law" every year, it puts us peasants at grave risk.
I agree that is the case in some places. I am merely pointing out the dealing will American’s Sh!t is a massive undertaking. There is a lot of distributed infrastructure you don’t see. It isn’t always reliable as everyone likes to think. It is pretty old in a lot of places. We have screwed this part of our country for decades.
Last time, the $4 a gallon breaking point happened at all-time low food prices. This time, the current food inflation means the breaking point will be between $3.50-$3.75.
Of course, the professional "economists" don't have a clue about it...
I'd like to see what they will continue to pay for while laying off public safety employees.
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