The Mexico City government will increase spending on security by 6.6% this year to just under 42.2 billion pesos (US $2.2 billion).
Finance Secretary Luz Elena González told a press conference on Sunday that the resources will be used to increase police salaries by 9%, hire more officers, pay the lease costs of new police cars and fund the C5 security command center, among other measures.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that 5,000 new police as well as 1,000 investigative officers will be hired this year.
González also outlined the government’s planned 2020 spending on transportation, public and social infrastructure, the environment and education.
Just over 29.7 billion pesos will go to transportation projects, González said, a 10.8% increase compared to last year.
Of that amount, 3.1 billion pesos will be allocated to the construction of two cable car systems (one in the north of the city, the other in the eastern borough of Iztapalapa) and 1.86 billion pesos will be used to purchase new light rail cars and trolley buses.
González also outlined several transportation projects that will be funded by resources allocated for public and social infrastructure.
Among them: construction of an elevated trolleybus line in eastern Mexico City for which 2.6 billion pesos has been allocated and a 500-million-peso project to extend Line 12 of the subway system.
Scores of projects are planned to upgrade the capital’s road network and parks as well as health, cultural, educational and sporting infrastructure. A total of 20.36 billion pesos will be spent on public and social infrastructure, González said, a 9.5% increase compared to 2019.
The secretary said that just under 18.2 billion pesos will go to environmental projects including almost 5.4 billion to improve water and drainage systems, while education funding will increase a whopping 128.1% to 10 billion pesos.
Just over 4.1 billion pesos will fund a scholarship scheme for primary and secondary school students and 1 billion pesos will be used to provide free uniforms and school supplies to children from economically disadvantaged families.
González added that funding for Mexico City’s 16 boroughs will increase 2.1% this year to more than 43 billion pesos.
Total spending of 238.97 billion pesos (US $12.7 billion) is outlined in the capital’s 2020 budget, a 2.1% increase compared to last year.
Source: Milenio (sp)
