Tuesday, February 24, 2004


Proposed Grand Rapids budget cuts hit police, fire departments
Faced with a budget crisis that has gotten worse instead of better, Grand Rapids City Manager Kurt Kimball today urged city commissioners to eliminate 130 jobs from the city's payroll by July 1.

Those cuts include eliminating 28 firefighter jobs, 40 uniformed police officer jobs and 62 other jobs from the 1,895 positions on the city's payroll. Forty-seven of the 130 jobs have been eliminated and another 36 are vacant and have gone unfunded in recent months.

If the cuts he proposed for the fire department are unacceptable, Kimball said he will suggest commissioners ask voters to raise property taxes by about 1 mill.

Everyone enjoy their tax cuts? Hmmmmm?