Amarillo spends the greatest amount of its municipal budget on police and fire protection.

I know. It’s hard to believe. Actually, this might be a major non-event. It does illustrate the importance people place on vital government services. I cannot think of anything more vital than protecting people’s safety, even their lives.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=882927

The link attached to this note sketches the city expenses for police and fire. The city’s 2012 budget totals around $258 million, with $88 million of it spent on public safety issues, or about 34 percent of the total.

I haven’t heard of a single community in America that doesn’t place top value on its police and fire protection. Every human being wants to be safe in their homes. To that end, Amarillo is answering the call.

But this link mentions the potential for future change in the city’s priorities. The way I see it, water might edge its way toward the head of the line. It’s not that the city will devalue public safety. It’s that the development of water resources is going to become more critical, particularly as the city’s water supply becomes, shall we say, a bit more endangered.

I mention water as a critical need mainly because without it, none of the rest of it – police, fire, roads, lights, libraries, trash pickup, parks, you name it – will matter.

But for now, thanks ought to go to City Hall for recognizing the need to keep its residents safe.