Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jun 2005
Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2005 The Gadsden Times
Contact:  http://www.gadsdentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203
Author: Cindy West

MARSHALL DRUG UNIT TO GET EXTRA FUNDING

The Marshall County Drug Enforcement Unit is getting some extra funding from
local governments.

The Boaz City Council voted last week to double the $20,000 it gives
the DEU each year.

The council will have to amend its current budget to increase the
quarterly payment in July from $5,000 to $10,000. "It will come from
the general fund," City Clerk Barbara Walden said. "We have additional
sales tax money because our tax revenues have been
increasing."

When the council prepares its new budget in October, it will jack up
the DEU donation from $20,000 to $40,000, still making quarterly
installments, Walden said.

Many drug enforcement units in Alabama learned this year that the
Department of Justice grant that funds them was being reduced and that
the matching amounts, the money the drug units provide to secure the
grants, would increase.

Drug Enforcement Unit Commander Rob Savage said Friday that although
he was told his budget would be cut by 35 percent and the matching
money requirement increased from 25 percent to 50 percent, the grant
reduction actually resulted in a 54 percent cut in his budget.

The grant pays the salaries of Savage, four agents, a helicopter pilot
and administrative assistant, as well as 80 percent of the salary of
an assistant district attorney and 25 percent of the salary of an
accountant in the County Commission office, who keeps the books for
the unit.

The unit has other expenses besides salaries: matching money for the
grant, fuel for vehicles and the helicopter, telephones and radios,
evidence supplies, rent for the office, money with which to make drug
buys and insurance, both liability policies and policies for vehi-

cles and the helicopter.

In the 1990s, local governments agreed to fund the DEU. The County
Commission and the four largest cities in the county - Albertville,
Boaz, Guntersville and Arab - agreed to provide $20,000 each per year,
and the towns of Douglas and Grant agreed to pay $1,000 per year.

Savage said although not all the other governments have taken formal
action yet, he has heard indications of increased funding from
Guntersville, Arab and Albertville, as well as the County Commission.

The drug unit will be able to apply $80,000 in seized money toward the
budget, as well.

"It's still not good. We will still have a staff reduction, losing one
agent definitely and one probably going to part-time status," Savage
said. Without the extra allocations, though, the DEU faced the
possibility of shutting down.

"It is going to be a bare-bones budget," Savage said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin