Quote Originally Posted by rcjunkie View Post
I disagree with this statement and I'm sure Mikemarsh and/or Andy will admonish me for doing so, but the City has increased the General Fund for Public Safety significantly over the past 16 years. There have been major increases for personnel related expenses, especially benefits (primarily health insurance), the City pays app. $12,000 per year, per employee just for health insurance, and when they have app. 4,300 employees, any increase is a major hit to the General Fund. It's a fact that 80% of the General Fund goes to Public Safety. In addition to present employees, they provide insurance to retired employees (like me, retired in 06), however, the portion we pay has increased significantly, I presently pay $485 per month.
I was speaking more in terms of the personnel shortage that the City admits are/have been short 200+ Public Safety. Sorry if that wasn't clear. Think it was that serious of articles last year that talked about all of the overtime (people even getting paid overtime when they are on vacation) and it said that as expensive as the overtime is, that it is actually cheaper for the City to be paying that rather than hiring the additional personnel and all of the associated costs that go along with it. I know companies I have worked for used the same rationale.

I agreed with you that rising related personnel costs have gobbled up any revenue increases.

Don't disagree with the rest of your post except for the "It's a fact that 80% of the General Fund goes to Public Safety." Where are you getting that?

From the most recent City budget report, pg 11 (19 of the 663 pdf file available for download at okc.gov)

General Fund Expenditures by Function

65% Public Safety
17% Public Services
9% Culture & Recreation
9% General Government
On the same page it does state:

About 80 percent of the General Fund Budget goes for employee related costs: salaries, taxes, retirement benefits and insurance.
The 80% figure appears to apply to ALL City employees (not just the public safety portion). So yes, any increase to the employee related costs, multiplied by the 4,300 +/- is going to have a definite impact on the budget. Absolutely.