Hamilton Police Service plans to spend 2.95 per cent more money in 2015 than it did last year — a move it calls the smallest budget increase in 16 years.
The service will ask the city for $148.9 million next year, $4.3 million more than it did in 2014. The total budget is $158.5 million.
It was tough to keep the budget lean, said Coun. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster, who chairs the police services board. But it was a priority.
"We worked hard at it," he said. "The taxpayers have had enough. They can't afford tax increases."
As for how city council will receive it, "you never know," he said.
"It's pretty much a stand-pat budget."
The biggest budget increase remains salaries and benefits. Employee-related costs account for $4.85 million, a 3.35-per cent increase over last year.
To balance it out, the service is trimming its operating expenses by about $150,000, and increasing its revenues by about $440,000.
The ask includes six new full-time staff, two trainers for Conductive Energy Weapons (CEWs) and five Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team officers who will deal with mental health cases.
The rapid response team pilot project launched downtown in November 2013, and handles people with a mental health crisis.
The program reduces the number of people who go to local emergency rooms, saving taxpayers money spent on healthcare, Ferguson said.
The budget eliminates one job — the community corrections liaison officer that served the federal halfway house at 94 York Blvd., which is closing at the end of this year. That accounts for about $130,000, or 0.09 per cent of the budget.
The 2014 budget was a 2.98-per cent increase over the year before.
The budget was a contentious issue in 2013, when city council and Chief Glenn De Caire butted heads over what began as a more than five-per cent increase over 2012, and ended up as a 3.52-per cent increase.
The police services board will vote on the budget at its board meeting, which will be Monday at 4 p.m.
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