FORFEITING REFORM

IT'S BAD enough that the state of Georgia doesn't know what happened to
much of the $12 million in cash and private property that authorities
confiscated from drug criminals in 2001. But it's even worse that the
Georgia Legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue won't lift a finger to find out
and make needed changes -- even when it's in the taxpayers' interests.

Last year, lawmakers asked State Auditor Russell Hinton to find out how
state and federal officials handled cash and property forfeitures following
drug busts. They were concerned that at least two state-run agencies -- the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Georgia State Patrol -- maintained
large cash reserves of forfeited funds from federal cases. Yet, neither got
a dime of money forfeited in cases that went through state courts.

What Mr. Hinton learned was alarming. He found out that some of the money
that could be used to fight crime -- and, indirectly, help balance the
state's budget -- was squandered by some local law enforcement agencies on
golf tournaments, cookouts, flowers, Christmas parties. And, more
ominously, the lack of a uniform reporting system meant no one at the state
level knew how this money was received and spent. That's an invitation to
all kinds of abuse.

Since lawmakers requested for Mr. Hinton to do the digging, you'd think
they would be interested in examining what he uncovered -- especially since
the state, at the start of this year's legislative session, had a proposed
2004 budget that was millions of dollars in the hole.

If you thought that, you'd be wrong.

Lawmakers didn't even cock an eyebrow at where this shadow drug money was
flowing, let alone lift a finger.

State Rep. Burke Day, R-Tybee Island, proposed a modest bill that would
have created a legislative study committee to look at the problem and
recommend some reforms. It went nowhere. Instead, House Speaker Terry
Coleman, D-Eastman, buried it. While he said the issue was "worth looking
into," he said too many special committees already exist and he didn't want
to give birth to a new one.

That explanation defies logic. It was Mr. Coleman, after all, who chaired
the Budgetary Responsibility Oversight Committee, or BROC -- the same panel
that asked Mr. Hinton to track where state forfeitures were going. To sit
on findings that showed sloppy accounting, lax controls and instances where
money was questionably spent in some of the 26 local police and sheriff's
departments that state auditors examined makes no sense. That's like a fire
alarm going off, but not sending firefighters to extinguish the blaze
because they have better things to do.

Mr. Coleman botched the call. Meanwhile, the word from this year's BROC
chairman, State Sen. George Hooks, D-Americus, isn't encouraging. He said
he's not familiar with Mr. Hinton's audit. However, he expected the panel
to study it further once the urgency is passed to find savings in the state
budget.

In other words, don't count on it anytime soon.

So more money, and time, is a'wastin'. Because of its location, Georgia
seized the sixth most drug assets of all the states in the country. The
five states ahead of Georgia have better ways of accounting for how that
money is spent. So reform is simple -- just copy what those states are
doing. In fact, that's what Mr. Hinton recommended. Sadly, few things are
simple when the Georgia Legislature gets involved.

But that doesn't change the fact that it's painfully obvious that forfeited
drug money is better spent on fighting crime -- or even balancing the
budget -- than playing golf. It's time for reform, not lame excuses from
legislative leaders like Mr. Coleman.