During his campaign, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller promised to add hundreds of officers to the city’s understaffed police force. Part of Keller’s plan to fund the incentive is to ask the New Mexico Legislature for state money to hire city officers. The idea is dead-on-arrival for some of the state’s key lawmakers. To hire the 400 extra police officers would cost 17 million dollars, and state lawmakers say since the state always funds state police, it’s up to each municipality to fund their own police departments. The Mayor will have to look elsewhere for police officer funding.
Mayor Keller also was left a budget deficit by the former administration of around 40 million dollars.
There has been some talk in town of a possible new public safety tax to pay for more Police.
