An upgrade was promised to the police station was promised to crank into gear from 2020, with it set to be finished by the end of 2022.

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But the latest state budget paints a grim picture for the ageing building, with the brake slammed on funding for the project seeing it dragged out until at least 2023-2024.

The last budget allocated $5 million to the project in 2021, but that figure had dropped dramatically to just $750,000 in the latest budget.

Overall, the Police, Fire and Emergency Management Department saw its budget allocation jump by more than $30 million.

The Longford police station was set to be completed ahead of schedule, and plans were laid out for a facility for the new specialist police team.

The team - a Special Operations Group - had long been called for by the police union, and $6.3 million of infrastructure for the group was put forth in the budget.

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A $7.5 million election commitment to build a St Helens police station found its way into the budget, but construction was not expected to really ramp up until 2024, and no money was allocated to it in the next year.

The past year saw police forced to expand their services to deal with the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tasmania Police's Deputy Commissioner was almost immediately seconded to take on the burden of helping steer Tasmania away from incoming virus infections, with other staff persistently tasked with implementing public health protocols.

Despite that, an election promise of 50 additional police officers was set to be delayed until 2022.

The increase in staffing was set to cost at least $13.7 million, with $1.45 million laid out for 2022 and the remainder coming from 2023 onwards.

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