PANEL PULLS FUNDS FROM METH BATTLE

SACRAMENTO -- What remained of money for Gov. Davis' "war on
methamphetamine" in the Central Valley disappeared Monday from the Senate
version of the budget bill.

A Senate subcommittee took out $15 million of anti-methamphetamine money
from the spending proposal. That is in addition to $25 million the full
Senate budget committee removed in early March.

The money joins hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed budget
allocations that lawmakers, mainly in the Senate, have pulled from the
2001-02 budget proposal in recent weeks. Their final status will be decided
next month, when 2000 tax revenue totals will be announced and Davis
presents his budget revision.

Already, however, some lawmakers are predicting that a slowing economy and
the energy crisis have dimmed the state's once-rosy financial picture.

"I agree that methamphetamine is a serious problem. But we have a serious
fiscal problem, too," Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford, said Monday. Sher is
chairman of the budget subcommittee on legislative, public safety,
executive and general government.

Davis included the $40 million in his January budget proposal after valley
legislators and law enforcement officials lobbied for it. Under his plan,
$25 million would be spent for equipment and other one-time expenses, and
$15 million would be for ongoing anti-meth efforts.

Davis officials have said most of the money would be spent in a nine-county
region that includes Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin counties.

"This is not the standard war on drug program. The mere manufacturing of
methamphetamine is a serious public health risk. Existing efforts are just
not successful," said Allen Sawyer, chief deputy director of the Governor's
Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

Some question the proposal, however. The legislative analyst's office, in
February and again on Monday, said the allocation wasn't specific enough
and, in any case, there already are millions of dollars available to fight
methamphetamine and for local law enforcement.

"This one feels a lot like overkill," Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica,
said. "Everyone wants an (anti-methamphetamine) program. Everyone wants to
close up the same number of labs."

Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, wanted to keep the full $40 million in
the budget. But he was outvoted by Sher and Kuehl.

"The Senate has been a little more difficult to get this through," Sawyer
said after the subcommittee action.

The Assembly budget committee has not discussed the methamphetamine
appropriation. Today, the Assembly Public Safety Committee is scheduled to
consider Assembly Bill 565, anti-meth legislation by Assemblyman Dennis
Cardoza, D-Merced, that would detail how to spend the $40 million.