Amherst Fact Check: Has Mayor Taylor Really Cut The Police Department Budget?
November 1, 2011
As an elected official, I feel it’s my duty to make sure that Amherst residents are given access to factual information about our city. Since a lot of misinformation gets tossed around by campaigns during election season, I think it helps to look at actual data and numbers so we can get an unbiased, objective look at the facts.
There are several exaggerations and falsehoods that have been circulating via Facebook and political campaign fliers lately, and I’d like to focus on each of them individually in separate blog posts this week.
Today, I want to take a look at one “urban legend” that has been making the rounds this week via some conversations between Amherst residents on Facebook: that Mayor David Taylor and the current administration has CUT the budget to the police every year over the last several years.
So, is it true that Mayor Taylor has cut the police budget during his tenure in office, as some of his political opponents are suggesting?
According to information provided by Amherst City Auditor David Kukucka, the answer is NO, the police department’s budget has NOT been cut under Mayor Taylor.
In fact, the police department’s budget has steadily increased over the past ten years.
In 2001, the Amherst Police Department expenditures were $1,893,103.31.
The 2011 Police Department budget is $3,029,500.00, a 60% increase in spending on police protection over the past ten years. In fact, despite the very tough economy, the Police Department budget for this year is 2.4% higher than last year’s expenditures.
Please share this information with your friends and neighbors in Amherst . . . more fact-checking to come this week!