Wisconsin's $1.1 billion deficit could result in less police personnel in Madison.
Faced with the possibility of losing $16 million in shared revenue by 2003, the city is looking at abandoning plans to hire seven additional police officers included in the 2002 budget. The scaling back of officers could force the city to re-evaluate its current agreement with the federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant.
The city originally said it would hire 15 new police officers between 2001 and 2003. The COPS grant pays for the initial salaries of the new personnel, but does not contribute any funds to the city after the first few years.
The addition of the seven officers in the 2002 budget came after a heated debate between members of the city council and Mayor Sue Bauman, who has said she does not favor the additional officers.
Bauman has already taken steps to attempt to curb the effects of a possible slash in revenues by initiating a hiring freeze and asking city departments to come up with ways they could trim 5 percent from their own budgets.
