The Mayor and the Governor have reached a million-dollar deal for security for the five day festival of the Tall Ships. 

Meanwhile, the mounted police, with their annual budget of almost half what the state will spend for five days on the Tall Ships, still seems doomed.  (You can write the mayor one last desperate plea if you want, though I don't know what good it will do — there's been tremendous feedback on the issue, even pledges to pay for the care of the horses, and still hizoner seems inclinced to cut the unit.)

The state, through the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, will spring for city's security forces for the Tall Ships.  The Festival is expected to bring local merchants a lot of business, which makes state funding politically feasible.  Even though the cost of additional security could, conceivably, be covered by charging a small fee — $2.50, say — for a day pass for the expected 600,000 visitors to the ships.  Problem solved.  With change to spare.

The mounted police, on the other hand, provide valuable services patrolling the Fens and Back Bay most of the year, and keeping order among occasionally unruly Sox fans (and if you think they could do it on bicycle — come on, are you kidding? No one respects a cop on a bicycle).  

The impact of axing the mounted units may not be immediately felt, just as their presence is often taken for granted.  But the loss to the community will be felt in years to come.  They are a part of the fabric of the Fenway.  That's how you destroy a community: you start pulling at threads here and there until the whole thing unravels.

The state is very kindly subsidizing the private sector in the case of the Tall Ships, when the private sector should be being encouraged to fund the special needs of the festival.  If projections of $120 million to the local economy are ball-park accurate, the additional security could be covered for less than one percent of the expected take.  

Meanwhile public sector services that actually need state funds to survive are axed.

What's wrong with this picture?