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What, me to blame? Austin city council gets "wake up call" on police budget crisis they knowingly caused

The debate in the Austin Statesman today over why the Austin Police Department's costs rose more than other PDs in the last decade strikes me as utterly disingenuous. Despite officials' incredulous comments, everyone quoted knows full well why Austin police cost so much - an extravagant union contract spearheaded by then Mayor Kirk Watson that made Austin police the highest paid officers in the country. Ridiculously, council members behaved as though they'd never heard this before:"These numbers are eye-opening," City Council Member Brewster McCracken said Monday. "It is a wake-up call about a concerning budget trend." Council Member Lee Leffingwell said he wants more information before forming an opinion about the new data, including whether the other cities had comparable growth rates...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 17, 2008 (boomark / email).