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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Ind. Courts - Vanderburgh County major drug prosecutions may fall next year due to budget constraints
Thomas B. Langhorne reports today in the Evansville Courier & Press in a long story that begins:
The number of major drug cases prosecuted in Vanderburgh County next year could fall because of money problems detailed publicly on Monday.After the first day of 2009 budget hearings, the president of the county's fiscal body said Prosecutor Stan Levco probably won't get the $258,923 he is seeking to absorb the loss of a federal drug-fighting grant.
The Edward Byrne Memorial State Justice Assistance Grant now pays for the only three full-time felony drug prosecutors in Levco's office, plus a secretary to support them. This year, the county kicked in $132,308 as a local match.
But federal spending on the grants was slashed by hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide, meaning Levco now needs the county to pick up the entire $258,923 tab if his drug prosecution unit is to continue at full strength in 2009.
The county's financial obligation would be even greater by virtue of the fact that its previous $132,000 grant match included no obligation to pay health insurance, but those costs would have to be added to the almost $259,000 outlay if the county funded the team.
"I doubt we will handle (felony drug cases) as well (without the money), but we'll do the best we can," Levco said after Monday's budget hearing.
Determined not to increase this year's $62 million county budget in the face of exploding fuel costs and legislatively mandated property tax caps, County Council President Marsha Abell said Levco probably is out of luck.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 12, 2008 07:34 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts