APD Still Costs More
While the last administration left office without any idea how the City of Abbotsford was going to pay the $5 million promised to the Calgary Flames organization, taxpayers are at least seeing some of the positive results of the end of the onerous contract with the company.
If approved the budget will mean a savings of $8 for the average taxpayer.
Thanks in large part to departure of the Flames farm team – the Abbotsford Heat – and a shrinking of the amount spent on Global Spectrum – the Philadelphia based company which manages the re-named Abbotsford Centre – Abbotsford’s new council appears to be looking at a small tax decrease for 2015.
Initial reports show that, along with a smaller increase than requested from the Abbotsford Police Department (APD), those two budget items have paved the way for the decrease.
With crime rates down and a virtual moratorium on the Chief Bob Rich’s ‘Displace and Disperse’ strategy on homelessness, it has not yet been spelled out why the APD needs more money. The force eats up the largest single chunk of the municipal budget with over 40 percent of taxes going to fill the APD’s budget.
The APD has traditionally been forced to take more each year from the taxpayers because of its top-heavy staffing structure. Rich has explained before thaat, with so many senior officers,the APD’s wage bill is higher than it would be if, like other jurisdictions, which use the RCMP, some of the most expensive, older officers could be transferred out.