OFFICIALS DON'T EXPECT DRUG GRANT TO HELP MUCH

Wichita County will receive about $345,000 in grants to fund the area drug task
force, according to an announcement released by Gov. Rick Perry Monday. But the
money the Governor's Criminal Justice Division is giving to area agencies
through federal grant programs marks a flat line in funding, according an
investigator at the North Texas Regional Narcotics Task Force.

The grant allots $345,340 to the task force, exactly the same amount as last
year, according to a spokeswoman at Perry's office.

But with higher gas prices and a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for officers
authorized by the City Council, the agency will have to drain funds that would
have been used for improved equipment to make up for stagnant state funding,
Task Force Investigator Robert Palley said.

"About the only thing that it will cover is salary and operating expenses," he
said.

What Palley said the grant won't cover is money to reward informants who help
convict some of the 400-500 drug dealers and producers the task force takes
down each year.

"I think the big thing (lack of funds) it has is you have to really watch what
you pay people to give you information," Palley said. "That's the one thing
that keeps everything coming back, it sweetens the pot a little bit."

Groups like Crime Stoppers and the Department of Public Safety also pay money -
often much more than the task force - to people in exchange for information
that leads to a bust.

Palley said the six-officer task force relies on generated program income - or
money and goods captured in drug busts - for the 30-35 percent of the task
force's budget that the grant doesn't cover. But in many of the busts,
especially methamphetamine dealers, little or no cash is found, Palley said.

To make cash flow problems worse, new legislation allows the District
Attorney's office to absorb up to 25 percent of the Task Force's seizures,
Palley said. Previously, the force kept 100 percent of their monetary findings.

But it comes full circle.

What isn't covered by the governor's grants and captured money has to be paid
for by the 26 or so counties and cities that pledged to keep the agency
buoyant, Palley said.

Without extra funding, Palley said the task force has to rely on worn equipment
like the cars with more than 100,000 miles on them that officers are currently
driving to drug busts across 11 counties.

"Everybody's just going to have to try to make it another year," he said.