So Much for Savings

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson has put forward a crime-fighting plan that he says will cost an additional $85 million per year. Putting aside the merits of the plan, it offers further evidence that promises of savings through regionalism are usually overblown.

Indianapolis has long been considered a leader in regionalism efforts and Peterson has been attempting to integrate more services. In particular, he argued that city and county law enforcement should be combined. When he made this pitch in 2005, he said the combination would result in a savings of $35 million.

The savings, in fact, became controversial (4th item), with opponents wondering whether fewer dollars would mean diminished services. But Peterson prevailed last year, and the police and sheriff merged at the start of the year.

Not all of his new proposal goes directly to crime-fighting efforts. There's money for courts and pensions. For all I know, not having studied it, it may be a genius-level blueprint. The total cost, including interest, could be $1.3 billion over 25 years.

That does show, less than two weeks after the local law enforcement departments combined, the notion of saving money is already off the table.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Savings schmavings! I grew up in the suburbs of Marion County. The Sheriff's department was corrupt. The police chief had reasonable accountability to a mayor and city-county council that did not want law enforcement creating political controversy. The Sheriff's office was kept on after Unigov as a crony (Republican) patronage tool. IPD did all the real policing. The Sheriff's office was just a dumping ground for hicks, political hacks, and IPD rejects. Putting the reigns on that circus is a bargain even with little or no savings.