Data & Miscellany

More information about House Speaker John Perzel's proposal to have the state help pay for thousands of new police in Pennsylvania.

Here are some numbers on the police complement in Philadelphia in recent years that I gleaned (with a little help from my friends) from city budget documents.

Here is a .pdf on how the Perzel plan could break down by county. Take this with a grain of salt. It probably overstates the number of police that can be hired. But, it is based on the formula of the state putting up $22,500 per officer.

Here is a link to the House Republican Caucus web page, with more info on the plan.

As I mentioned below, Rendell says he is cool to the plan because it will cost too much money. Here is a link to that story. It gives him the rare opportunity to look like a fiscal conservative.

I did a column on the Perzel plan today. It struck me later that Perzel is not simply positioning himself on the issue for this election. This very well may be the first step in his campaign for governor -- for 2010.