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Friday, October 14, 2011

Cost of Occupy Philly for its first week: $230,000

The city's total price tag for Occupy Philly's first week is $230,000, PhillyClout reports. The vast majority — $200,000 — of these costs were from police overtime. (Straight police time is not included in these figures.)

Going forward, the city expects the average weekly expense to be $112,000.

It's Our Money spoke with budget director Rebecca Rhynhart about these costs, and learned a few things worth noting. 

Occupy Philly protesters argue that less — and perhaps no — money should be spent on policing them, since they have their own safety committee and conflict-resolution strategies. City officials argue that police are needed to guarantee public safety. 

However, it appears the city is deploying fewer police, since police overtime costs have dropped significantly. On the first day of the protest, Rhynhart said, the city spent $61,000 on police overtime. This Wednesday, that fell to $12,000.

Rhynhart said that costs for "straight police time" — when police are reassigned from other areas to Occupy Philly — are also dropping.

Where did the other $30,000 go in the first week? A one-time $15,000 IT equipment cost to set up a City Hall command center for police and various smaller costs incurred by the public property department, streets department and others.

Follow us on Twitter and review city services on our sister site, City Howl.
Posted by Holly Otterbein @ 5:44 PM  Permalink | 7 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:35 PM, 10/14/2011
    Even a penny of my tax money spent on these dirtbags is too much. I think I am going to form a group to protest these protestors.
    — Sane1
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:06 PM, 10/14/2011
    Of course the Fleabaggers think taxpayers should pay for the resources they consume - isn't that the entire point of their protest? Making someone else pay their way?
    — ObamaSolyndra
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:10 PM, 10/14/2011
    If they believe in shared communal input then they ought to be able to figure out how to pay the shared communal tab.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:41 AM, 10/15/2011
    There already was a counter-protest, Sane. Shame you guys don't support the first amendment. I always knew that the right preferred a no-tax dictatorship over the Constitution.
    — HandNik
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:32 PM, 10/15/2011
    There should be no more extraordinary police vigilance at that protest. If they fear for their safety, they can hire armed guards.
    — DonQ
  • Comment removed.


7 comments
About It's Our Money
Every year, city government spends slightly more than $4 billion. Where does all that money come from? More importantly, where does it go? Are we getting the most bang for our tax buck? “It's Our Money” is a joint project between Philadelphia Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation, designed to answer these questions.




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