DROP IN DRUG TASK FORCE FUNDING COULD HIT AREA PROGRAMS HARD

Some drug task forces in Montana and across the nation could face tough
choices after a significant cut in their major source of funding.

"This is the most critical issue we've faced in the last 10 years for drug
enforcement funding," said Jeff Faycosh, a member of the Montana Narcotics
Officers Association.

There is $170.4 million set aside in the national budget in the Edward
Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant in fiscal year 2008, which begins
July 1. That's a decrease of about 67 percent from the FY 2007 total of
$520 million. The Byrne grant is the largest source of drug enforcement
funding in almost every state, according to an Associated Press report. In
FY 2007, Montana got about $1.5 million in Byrne money, Faycosh said. For
the 2008 budget year, Montana is projected to get about $460,000, he said.

The cuts took many law enforcement groups by surprise, Faycosh said.

"It kind of snuck up on everybody," he said. "In early December, we went
in with actually more money than we've had in quite some time."

Law enforcement groups in Montana and elsewhere are asking Congress to
restore the money, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he is trying to get
funding for drug-enforcement attached to the Iraq supplemental spending
bill. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., have said
they also support efforts to restore the funding.

Of the seven drug task forces in Montana, six rely on the Byrne grant as
their primary source of money. The Central Montana Drug Task Force, which
includes Cascade and Teton counties, is the only exception. That group is
funded by a separate federal grant that wasn't cut.

"Depending on which task force, they're going to see huge, huge, huge
cuts," Faycosh said.

The Havre-based Tri-Agency Safe Trails Drug Task Force stands to lose
about $124,000 in grant funding in the next budget, task force commander
Lt. Jerry Nystrom said. That's almost half of the force's total
budget, he said. The Tri-Agency task force operates in six counties --
Chouteau, Blaine, Phillips, Hill, Liberty and Judith Basin -- as well as
on the Fort Peck and Rocky Boy's reservations.

The funding cut could hinder the task force's fight against
methamphetamine, which Nystrom said is going well.

"It took us 18 years to get where we're at now -- on top of things," he
said. "This will just set us back."

The Tri-Agency task force has a staff of three agents who come from police
or sheriff's offices within the coverage area, but are paid out of the
task force's budget.

Nystrom said he will have to ask the contributing agencies to pay the
officers or eliminate the positions if Congress doesn't come up with
another source of funding.

"(The other agencies) will have to forego putting somebody on the street
in uniform so they can absorb the cost," he said. "You're either going to
be short on the street with uniform guys or you're going to be short on
the task force."

The Central Montana Drug Task Force shouldn't see much impact from the
funding reduction, said Cascade County Sheriff David Castle, who is
co-chairman of the task force. That task force gets about half of its
money -- around $105,000 in FY 2007 -- from the federal High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area program. That program budget was not affected by the
cuts.

Castle said he applied for the HIDTA grant instead of a Byrne grant
because HIDTA gives local law enforcement more discretion in how the money
is spent. It's still federal money, so it may be subject to future
budget cuts, Castle said. He added that he is trying to diversify funding
sources for the task force to reduce its financial vulnerability.

"It could be the same thing next year for us with HIDTA," he said. "That's
why I don't count on it wholly."

Faycosh said he spent a week at the end of February in Washington, D.C.,
as a delegate to the National Narcotics Officers Association's Coalition.
While there, he met with Tester, and staff members for Baucus and Rehberg.

Faycosh said it appears that $490 million for drug enforcement funding
will be attached to the Iraq supplemental spending bill, which would be
spread across the nation. Congress is expected to take up that bill
sometime in late spring.

"That wouldn't give us an increase; it would just keep us where we are,"
he said.

However, President George Bush could veto that bill. The Bush
administration has expressed a philosophy that the federal government
should not be the primary source of funding for local law enforcement.

"It's about a 50-50 chance right now," Faycosh said.

Nystrom will be watching closely from Havre.

"We're hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst," he said. "We're
short-handed as it is, anyway."