COUNTIES MAY HAVE TO FUND DRUG TREATMENT

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Schwarzenegger's administration is considering
moving Proposition 36 drug treatment funding into a new program that
requires counties to put up $1 for every $9 they receive.

At present, counties don't have to provide money for implementing
the voter-approved initiative requiring treatment instead of prison
for first- and second-time drug offenders.

The funding shift is one of many ideas under consideration as
Schwarzenegger makes the final decisions on the budget proposal
he'll present in January.

This idea already is generating concern among county officials who
would have to find money in their own financially constrained
budgets to pay the additional costs for a program the voters mandated.

"The counties probably would really rise up in opposition to this,"
said Thomas Renfree, executive director of the County Alcohol and
Drug Program Administrators Association of California. "But we will
have to see more detail."

Few details are known, because neither the state Department of
Finance nor the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs that
oversees Prop. 36 would comment on the specifics in the governor's
budget proposals before January.

"It's been a long-standing policy not to discuss ongoing budget
deliberations, other than to tell you that the overall budget has
not been finalized," said Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

But Renfree and others said the Department of Finance is proposing
to shift Prop. 36 funding into the Offender Treatment Program to try
to improve results of the initiative that voters approved in 2000.

A Sacramento Bee series on Prop. 36 highlighted problems in the
program, including studies that have found three out of four
offenders sentenced to treatment under Prop. 36 never entered or
completed their court ordered-programs.

The governor and lawmakers agreed to create the Offender Treatment
Program earlier this year to try to encourage counties to improve
their Prop. 36 effort. The new program required matching local funds
but was launched with an extra $25 million in state money that in
part rewards counties that report higher success rates.

The Offender Treatment Program doesn't provide for jail sanctions
for offenders who don't show up for the program. But it requires
counties to plan improvements in their Prop. 36 programs and
encourage initiatives believed to improve results, including drug
testing and a court calendar dedicated to Prop. 36 cases.

"The governor really wants reforms in the program," Renfree said.