AREA'S ANTI-DRUG FUNDS HACKED

Federal funds that help pay for Pima County's anti-drug task force
were slashed by more than two-thirds when Congress passed the fiscal
year 2008 omnibus appropriations bill.

The amount going to the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant
program, which received $520 million last year, dropped to $170
million this year, said Mary Marshall, spokeswoman for the Arizona
Criminal Justice Commission.

That means Arizona will likely get about $1.7 million, compared to
$5.6 million last year, she said. Pima County will get a fraction of
that.

"It would have a serious impact on our ability to work as a total law
enforcement community in the fight against drugs," Pima County
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said of the loss, announced last week.

Smaller agencies such as the South Tucson Police Department likely
would not be able to continue participation in the Counter Narcotics
Alliance, made up of 18 Tucson-area, state and federal agencies
working to stem the northward flow of drugs.

Marshall said the fund cut, while harmful, would not necessarily mean
a staffing cut.

"Because of rollover funding, there will be no really serious impact
this year," she said.

The state is given a window of three or four years in which to spend
its allocation, she said.

Arizona has an additional cushion because it mixes the money it gets
through the federal program with the state's Enhanced Drug and Gang
Enforcement Account, from fines paid by drug offenders. Local law
enforcement agencies are asked to match a small percentage of the
funding, Marshall said.

She cautioned that funds from the state, about 50 percent of the
total, are also in jeopardy.

"Our state is in a fiscal crisis," she said. "State funds for this
could be part of a fiscal sweep."

The amount of federal funding Arizona will get will be decided by a
formula made available in the next week or so, Marshall said.

Then the commission's Drug, Gang and Violent Crime Committee will
decide how to divide the money among the state's 16
multijurisdictional task forces, one for each county and a commercial
traffic group.

Dupnik is one of seven people on the committee.