While this analysis is technically true, it does ignore the revenue side of the ledger. Even though a budgeted expense is not incurred, by law, the City has to offset it with a budgeted revenue source (aka a tax typically). By cutting vacancies, and therefore cutting budgeted expenses, the City can reduce revenue by reducing taxes, keep revenue flat and allocate it to another expense in the budget (e.g. police OT like you pointed out), or put it in fund balance at the end of the year and increase the City's savings.
Some amount of money is budgeted for police overtime, but not nearly enough. From Heather Cherone's article:
> During the first six months of 2024, CPD spent $130 million on overtime, even though its entire annual budget for overtime is $100 million.
Another great analysis, thanks for scratching something off my Christmas wish list!
While this analysis is technically true, it does ignore the revenue side of the ledger. Even though a budgeted expense is not incurred, by law, the City has to offset it with a budgeted revenue source (aka a tax typically). By cutting vacancies, and therefore cutting budgeted expenses, the City can reduce revenue by reducing taxes, keep revenue flat and allocate it to another expense in the budget (e.g. police OT like you pointed out), or put it in fund balance at the end of the year and increase the City's savings.