WILLIAMSVILLE, NY (WKBW) - The Town of Amherst is considering a controversial idea to save taxpayers money.
Some town board members want to charge a fee to provide police protection and traffic control to charity events, like 5K runs.
The police department currently spends about $50,000 per year in overtime and other costs to provide charity events with police protection.
"Who is really benefiting from these events?" asked Steven Sanders, a town board member who is sponsoring the resolution with four other members.
"If a local restaurant wants to run an event and net $10,000 for charity and the town's spending $1,500 on police protection, the question is should the town really be subsidizing this contribution to charity to the amount of $1500? And I think the answer probably is no."
Amherst is considering a $116 million budget proposal for 2013 at Monday night's 7:00 p.m. meeting.
