In the aftermath of a scathing report by ABC15, the Phoenix Police Department has tightened its overtime policies. A memo issued on April 26, 2024, just two weeks after an expose showcased some officers raking in overtime payments well into the five-figure range, now requires dual supervisory sign-off for overtime requests. The memo also mandates approvals within the same work week — a bureaucratic move aiming to curb the financial bleeding. As ABC15 reported, the paycheck pinnacle was an officer who pocketed over $39,000 in overtime, covering a staggering 550 hours. The Phoenix PD claimed these were for several months of work and passed muster as credible.
Grappling with a deficit of officers, the Phoenix PD has often leaned on overtime to plug the gaps. Following January's big overtime reveal, ABC15 has kept the pressure on the department through a public records request to bring transparency to the city's overtime management. The police spokesperson stated, "This notification was the result of recommendations from a workgroup convened last September by Interim Chief Michael Sullivan who asked that the group explore and make recommendations on how to effectively manage overtime costs given the current staffing numbers."
Meanwhile, in a move some miles away in spirit and methodology, Alabama lawmakers are busy incentivizing businesses to tackle a different kind of financial hurdle — childcare costs. On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate threw unanimous support behind a bill set to offer tantalizing tax breaks to companies padding the childcare wallets of their workforce. According to the report from Potter's House Church, this legislative piece is poised to set aside a cool $15 million in tax credits, earmarking them for employers who shoulder the childcare expenses of their employees.
"The goal is to help families afford child care and help businesses struggling to find workers," House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels illuminated, as parents across the state grapple with child care costs that preclude their return to the labor market. The tax credits, slated to commence in 2025, will also benefit child care providers, dishing out up to $25,000 annually. The providers must be playing ball with the Department of Human Resources Quality Rating Improvement System, an evaluative measure graded towards excellence in care.
The innate struggles of both Phoenix law enforcement to staff its ranks sans the unsustainable lifeblood of overtime, and the herculean efforts by everyday Alabamians to work without their income being cannibalized by childcare, serve as a stark reminder: financial levers, pulled judiciously, can have vast consequences, for better, or for unchecked, for a budgetary nightmare.
