Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jan 2006
Source: Wausau Daily Herald (WI)
Copyright: 2006 Wausau Daily Herald
Contact: 
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/contactus/readerservices/letter-to-editor.shtml
Website: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1321
Author: Jake Rigdon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

SEIZED DRUG CASH BENEFITS SCHOOLS

Cash seized in drug busts is now more likely to help school libraries 
stock their shelves with "Harry Potter," "Chronicles of Narnia" and 
"Sisterhood" books than ever before.

A law signed this week by Gov. Jim Doyle makes it easier for law 
enforcement agencies to collect money from drug crimes. A portion of 
that money is then funneled to the Common School Fund, which gives 
money to the state's school libraries.

Previously, law enforcement agencies could sell property confiscated 
from a drug crime. A portion of that money went back to the law 
enforcement agency, while the rest went to the Common School Fund. 
But in drug busts in which $5,000 or less in cash was confiscated, 
neither benefited.

The Common School Fund has many funding sources, including fines for 
nursing home, campaign or insurance violations; confiscated property; 
penal fines; and some credit card fees, said Tia Nelson, executive 
secretary of the Madison-based Board of Commissioners of Public Land, 
which operates the Common School Fund. The earnings from the Common 
School Fund are then distributed on an annual basis to school districts.

The Wausau School District received about $220,680 in Common School 
Fund money last year, more than any other school district in Marathon 
or Lincoln counties. That money is used for all library materials 
that are catalogued and housed in the library, such as print 
materials, audio books, CD-ROMS and, of course, books.

The school district's libraries' two main funding sources are the 
school budget and the Common School Fund, said Wausau East High 
School Librarian Beth Molski.

"We rely very heavily on this money, especially since the price of 
books has escalated so much within the past five years," she said. 
"The more money I have for books, the better our library will be. So 
I'm very dependent on any extra penny I can get."

Incentive For Police

Police always have had the option to funnel drug bust money to the 
Common School Fund, but because law enforcement agencies did not get 
any of the money back, few did. In 2005, only $4,291 in drug money 
collected and processed by law enforcement agencies went to the 
Common School Fund.

A drug bust last year in Brown County illustrates how far the money 
can now go under the new law. Usually, when a drug bust involves more 
than $5,000 in cash, federal law enforcement agencies step in. They 
receive a small percentage of that money (about 20 percent), and the 
local law enforcement agency receives the rest.

But in the Brown County drug bust, in which $11,000 in cash was 
seized, federal law enforcement agents did not become involved. If 
the new law had been in place, about $5,100 of that money would have 
gone to the Common School Fund; the rest would have gone to Brown 
County police. That one drug bust would have netted the Common School 
Fund $800 more than all the money collected from cash seizures all of 
last year.

"Even with smaller (money) confiscations, like street-dealer types, 
the police wouldn't get that money back, even though the 
investigation and going through the court process cost them money," 
said Rep. Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, who was the lead author of the 
bill. "So they couldn't justify the expense and time (collecting and 
processing that money for the Common School Fund) would take, even 
though the money went to a good cause.

"This at least gives law enforcement agencies the incentive to 
recover their costs, which in turn puts money into the Common School Fund."

Police Benefit, Too

Because there is now a greater potential for money confiscated in 
drug busts to go into the state's school libraries, Bies is hoping 
federal law enforcement agencies become less involved in busts that 
net high dollar amounts.

Drug bust money goes toward training and equipment at the Everest 
Metro Police Department.

For police to collect on that money under the new law, they're going 
to have to prove that the money was a part of the drug crime, said 
Capt. Scott Sleeter of the Everest Metro Police Department.

"If you arrest a person for possession with intent to deliver, maybe 
for a pound of marijuana, and in the same safe there's $1,000 in 
cash, then that suggests the money was associated with the drugs," he 
said. "It just depends on the circumstance."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman