Ferguson suffers budget fallout from Michael Brown shooting

[Jazzy]

Ferguson city leaders project a $2.5 million budget shortfall during the current fiscal year and a similar shortage in fiscal 2016, largely due to the unrest and fallout after the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the town's mayor said Thursday.

Mayor James Knowles III said several businesses damaged or destroyed in the riots have not returned, so sales tax revenue is about $400,000 less than budgeted. The city voluntarily agreed to reduce the amount of money collected through the municipal court. Beyond that, police were issuing few tickets in the months after the shooting because they were too busy dealing with protests, Knowles said. As a result, municipal court revenue for the current fiscal year is expected to be $1.2 million — about half of what was projected.

Knowles said layoffs or significant cuts are unlikely because the city had some $8 million accumulated from fiscal management over the last decade, which will be used to help meet the shortfall. He said city leaders, currently working on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, will look at ways to save money such as not filling some job vacancies.

City leaders are meeting with the Justice Department as they seek an agreement for changes to the way Ferguson's municipal government operates.

Knowles said it is unclear how long negotiations with the Justice Department will take. The legal cost and other costs associated with the negotiations are expected to reach $500,000.

Despite the financial hardship, Knowles is optimistic.

Some businesses that left have been replaced. A condominium and commercial development is about to get started. Plans call for redevelopment of West Florissant Avenue __ the site of many protests — which should bring in new businesses.

Source

Well Ferguson... what did you think would happen? You robbed, looted, destroyed (and lets be honest you did that because you wanted to rob loot and destroy) and now your city that you destroyed is destroyed. Businesses left, and only a fool would start a business there. This was totally predictable. You destroyed your city and now you are crying because your city has been destroyed. There is a price to pay for that kind of behavior.

Your thoughts?

 

[Webster]

Your thoughts?

From 2020 but still relevant....

(City Journal) It took several months for the first iteration of the Ferguson Effect to become obvious. Michael Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in August 2014, triggering local riots and a national narrative about lethally racist police. Officers backed off proactive policing in minority neighborhoods, having been told that such discretionary enforcement was racially oppressive. By early 2015, the resulting spike in shootings and homicides had become patent and would lead to an additional 2,000 black homicide victims in 2015 and 2016, compared with 2014 numbers.

Today’s violent-crime increase—call it Ferguson Effect 2.0 or the Minneapolis Effect—has come on with a speed and magnitude that make Ferguson 1.0 seem tranquil. George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May was justly condemned—but the event has now spurred an outpouring of contempt against the pillars of law and order that has no precedent in American history. Every day, another mainstream institution—from McDonald’s to Harvard—denounces the police, claiming without evidence that law enforcement is a threat to black lives.

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The rising carnage in the inner city is the consequence of this official repudiation of the criminal-justice system. The current tolerance and justification for vandalism and violence; the silencing of police supporters; and police unwillingness to intervene, even when their own precincts are assaulted—all send a clear message to criminals that society has lost the will to prevent lawlessness.

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These are no longer the warning signs of a possible breakdown of civilized life. That breakdown is upon us. If local and national leaders are unable to summon the will to defend our most basic institutions from false and inflammatory charges of racism, they have forfeited their right to govern. Unless new leaders come forth who understand their duty to maintain the rule of law, the country will not pull back from disaster.