ANTI-DRUG-TAX SURPLUS DEBATED

Jackson County Legislator Bob Spence urged colleagues on Monday to continue
the anti-drug-tax surplus fund.

He said most agencies fail to spend money allocated to them from annual
anti-drug tax revenues and did not need additional dollars from the surplus.

Spence said that for the past eight years only the county jail and the
Kansas City Police Department spent all the money they received, and they
did so for only two years.

Other legislators favored giving most of the surplus to the agencies.

The county's Community-Backed Anti-Drug Tax, known as COMBAT, is expected
to raise about $19 million this year for law enforcement, drug treatment
and drug prevention. An additional $5 million is in the COMBAT surplus.

Legislators are considering whether to re-establish expired percentage
guidelines adopted in 1995 for spending annual COMBAT revenues and for
spending down the surplus.

Even without formally setting aside a surplus, legislator Dan Tarwater said
he expected excess COMBAT revenue and unspent allocations to total about $2
million annually.