Pubdate: Fri, 16 Dec 2005
Source: Portage Daily Register (WI)
Copyright: 2005 Portage Daily Register
Contact: http://portage.scwn.com/forms/letter.html
Website: http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3779
Author: Paul Ferguson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/byrne+grant

SHERIFF: DRUG PROGRAM FUNDING LOST

Thanks to a federal grant drying up, Columbia County's 2006 drug
enforcement and education budget will be cut by one-third, Sheriff
Steven Rowe announced this week.

Now comes the process of trying to figure out how to avoid a
slackening in actual enforcement efforts. Rowe approached the county
Finance Committee with the news Thursday. Members recommended the
Sheriff's Department carry out enforcement and education somewhat
conservatively if possible and keep the committee apprised of the drug
enforcement budget as the year progresses.

"I think it's extremely important that we do an adequate job," Finance
Committee Chairman John Tramburg said. "I think that's got to be a
funded program. We've got to stay on top of these drugs."

Rowe said after the committee meeting that reaction was encouraging.
"It's good to know we've got the support of [the Finance Committee] to
keep the drug program going," he said.

He lamented that if drug enforcement needs outpace the current funding
available, funds from county coffers will have to make up the
difference. ad header

Rowe volunteered to cut $4,000 from the drug enforcement budget for
items he said could be absorbed by the general department budget. He
was also hopeful that the department would get money from property
seized during a June bust of a massive marijuana grow in the town of
Lodi. With or without the seizure money, though, "We're not going to
cut back on drug investigations. If we have a lead, it's business as
usual," Rowe said.

"We just can't operate without drug enforcement."

Detective Lt. Wayne Smith, who oversees drug investigations, said some
jurisdictions in Wisconsin have sufficient staff for their own drug
enforcement units. The federal funding cut, however, comes at a time
when Columbia County hasn't had the ability to increase staff as the
number of drug investigations rises.

"Instead of increasing staffing, we've increased the workload for
those that do the drug work and offset those costs with this grant.
That's a real problem because now we're at a point where we've got
this increased workload, we don't have increased staff for it, and now
we've lost funding to offset those costs associated with that
increased workload.

"It's a difficult balancing act," he continued. "You don't want to
take the gains we've made in drug enforcement in the county away."

The state of Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance has a drug task
force committee that distributes the federal money to local drug
enforcement groups. Statewide, local agencies requested $4.3 million
in funding, but the federal Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant
Program handed down only $1.9 million to Wisconsin. Wisconsin's share
for 2007 is further reduced to $800,000, according to Rowe.

Rowe said since Sept. 11, 2001, federal money to states from the Byrne
grant has dropped 64 percent.

"It's going to get worse," he said. "We just got hit sooner than the
other counties are going to get hit."

For 2006, Columbia County requested $33,149, and resigned itself to a
cut of some sort by budgeting only $27,000.

Instead, the Sheriff's Department will have to rely on a county
appropriation of $52,100 rather than a total budget of $79,100. Most
of the costs covered by that amount are in work hours, because drug
investigations often are done above and beyond other work during
normal daytime hours, Rowe said.

Very little of the money -- just $4,000 -- goes to drug education.
Rowe said that expenditure covers mostly printed educational pamphlets
and handouts for both children and adults. The money doesn't affect
Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, which the county no longer
provides to rural elementary schools. The only affiliation the
Sheriff's Department has with DARE is staffing the program in
Pardeeville, which is funded under the village's police contract, Rowe
said. Other DARE programs are funded locally.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin