Including firefighters in
special districts, the analysis projected the state would miss out on at least
$62.7 million in savings. That’s money that could have gone to put more first
responders on the street, perhaps making furloughs and job cuts unnecessary. Or
the money could go back to the taxpayer.
Barrett, in a heated
exchange with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke about the sheriff’s
controversial public service announcement advising citizens to consider arming
themselves in these tight budgetary times, acknowledged that the city has to
take police off the street to help meet a nearly $30 million contribution to
the police pension fund.
“We have three furlough days
so that we can make a pension payment of ($29.95 million) for our police and
have no layoffs,” Barrett told Morgan.
Clarke’s department, forced
to cut dozens of law enforcement position due to fiscal pressures, is served by
deputies who also are not required to contribute 5.8 percent to their pensions.
“I had to lay off 42
officers last year,” Clarke told Morgan. “On top of that, there was an
increasing demand of 911 calls of service going unanswered, not through any
fault of the street officers but because they don’t have the proper amount of
resources.”
But their pensions are paid.
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