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With All the Rioting, Ferguson's City Budget is Short
#158155
12/12/2014 09:48 AM
12/12/2014 09:48 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 23,930 Tulsa
airforce
OP
Administrator
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OP
Administrator
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 23,930
Tulsa
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So, they\'re going to have the police issue more citations and raise revenues through fines . You can't make this stuff up. Ferguson, Missouri, which is recovering from riots following the August shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman, plans to close a budget gap by boosting revenue from public-safety fines and tapping reserves.
The strategy by the St. Louis suburb, which suffered a second round of violent protests last month after a grand jury refused to indict the police officer, may risk worsening community relations with increased citations and weakening its credit standing by reducing a rainy-day fund.
To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.
“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said. “There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.” (...) That's going to help with community relations. Onward and upward, airforce
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