Friday, May 30, 1997
Crime task force funding still uncertain
By JERRY DANIEL REED / Abilene Reporter-News
Full funding for an area drug-enforcement agency will wind
up more than a day late, but officials hope not a dollar short.
The West Central Texas Interlocal Crime Task Force will start
its fiscal year Sunday with considerably less than full local
funding for the year assured, though no member county has refused
outright to chip in.
"I think, really, it's very much up in the air at this
point," said Taylor County District Attorney James Eidson,
the task force's project director.
At the start of today - the final day of the agency's expiring
fiscal year - six of the 15 member counties had not committed
to help fund the task force's budget for the new fiscal year:
Coleman, Haskell, Jones, Nolan, Runnels and Stonewall.
Runnels County Commissioners were to take up the matter today,
and Nolan County Judge Jack Aycock said he planned to call a special
meeting to consider acting before the task force board's scheduled
meeting on Wednesday.
The full-year allocation of the six uncommitted counties totals
$26,790, out of a $126,486 allocation for all 15. The $126,486
is a 25 percent match for a federal grant funneled through the
state.
Starting the year without assured full funding makes task force
field commander Frank Cleveland anxious, although the agency won't
face any immediate problem in paying its bills. Taylor County
Auditor Bridget McDowell, who keeps the agency's books, said the
first monthly check from the federal grant is due soon.
And Taylor County Commissioners have made available $17,623.33,
one third of their county's annual allocation. By far the most
populous member county, Taylor, assigned 41.8 percent of the total
local funding based on population.
Eidson wondered, however, whether Taylor County commissioners
want to "float" the task force the first couple of weeks
of June while officials of other counties are still making up
their minds on whether to participate.
In most of the uncommitted counties, the governing bodies -
mainly commissioners courts - haven't taken up the matter officially,
although several have discussed it. Coleman County faces an additional
problem, a severe financial squeeze. The estimated $500,000 cost
of two upcoming capital murder trials should stagger the budget
of the small county. Still, County Judge Sherrill Ragsdale hopes
something can be worked out.
"We can't stop doing everything," he explained. He's
asked the city councils of Coleman and Santa Anna to consider
sharing the county's $4,148 allocation.
"Perhaps between the three of us, we can do something,"
he said.
Coleman Mayor Woody Maddox and Santa Anna Mayor Karen Morris
said their city councils will look at the possibility of joint
funding, though Morris noted that "we're kind of in the same
shape Coleman County is in."
The problem from Eidson's viewpoint is that Coleman County's
decision, plus several others, will come several days into the
new fiscal year.
And if the task force winds up dropping one or more counties
for failure to ante up, each remaining county will have to pick
up a greater share to make up the shortfall.
For instance, without the participation of the largest still-uncommitted
county, Jones, Taylor County would have to kick in an additional
$2,955.68, and second most-populous Brown County would pay an
additional $890.74.
Decisions from four counties - Coleman, Haskell, Jones and
Stonewall - must await the next regular meetings of city councils
and county commissioners, scheduled as late as June 10. Of city
and county officials contacted in those counties, none voiced
any opposition to participating in the task force, though some
carefully pointed out that the deal's not sealed until their colleagues'
votes are in.
Local funding for the task force became a major concern for
the local governments only this year, after nearly nine years
of covering the 25 percent local match with private fund-raising
and the proceeds of court-ordered seizures of cash and property
belonging to drug traffickers.
But private fund-raising has sagged of late, just as the task
force has also experienced a drought in big-bucks seizures. So
for the first time this year, the task force had to solicit local
governments to finish the final months of its fiscal year in the
black.
Eidson voiced frustration that an earlier plea, given to a
May 2 assembly of public officials invited from throughout the
15 counties, didn't nail down the funding to start the new fiscal
year.
"We told those people," he said, "that they
had to commit by the end of May."
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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