Drug task forces may face funding cuts

Montana's seven regional drug task forces may face severe budget cuts this year if a nationwide campaign fails to restore federal backing.

Sheriff Mike Meehan said Friday he expects annual funding for Flathead County's participation in the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force to fall from $259,000 in fiscal 2007 to $129,000 in fiscal 2008, which begins July 1.

The Northwest Montana Drug Task Force's total budget in fiscal 2007 was about $350,000.

"There have been steady cuts over the years, but nothing like this," said Meehan. "It's pretty devastating."

President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget, which he signed into law in December, cut funding for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant from $520 million nationally to $170.4 million, a 67 percent reduction.

The Bush administration has said that the federal government should not be the primary means of paying for local law enforcement.

Montana's share of the Byrne grant, which finances drug enforcement efforts in almost every state, is about $2 million annually, according to Roland Mena, executive director of the state Board of Crime Control.

Last year, Montana received $2.1 million for anti-drug programs, $1.2 million of which went to drug task forces. In fiscal 2008, Byrne grant funds for Montana could drop to $700,000, leaving about $400,000 for drug task forces.

The Northwest Montana Drug Task Force is a cooperative enforcement effort involving five counties - Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Sanders, and Mineral - and the Flathead Indian Reservation.

The unit is composed of three Flathead County deputies, a Kalispell police officer, Lincoln County deputy, Lake County deputy, and an officer from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Byrne grant money pays for half of each drug task force member's salary.

"We're really trying to get this money reinstated," said Meehan, who commanded the task force from 1998 to 2002.

If the funding to the federal grant doesn't get restored, the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force might cease to exist.

"I've talked with other sheriffs," Meehan said. "If this Byrne grant money isn't reinstated by July 1, they will pull out of the task force. They can't afford it."

And since only drug task forces composed of at least five law enforcement agencies qualify for Byrne grant funds, Flathead County also stands to lose the rest of the Byrne grant money that wasn't cut.

"So we'll be at square one," said Meehan. "We definitely wouldn't be working five counties."

When Meehan commanded the drug task force, he said his officers were busting a meth lab once every 10 days. Since then, production had been pushed to other places such as Spokane, Seattle, and California. But demand for meth and other drugs remains high, making stopping their transport a priority.

Without the other four counties, especially the border counties, law enforcement's ability to gather intelligence on drug-trafficking routes will be severely hindered, Meehan said.

To prevent the collapse of drug task forces across the country, a national coalition of law enforcement and state agencies is petitioning Congress to include funding for the Byrne grant in an emergency spending bill for the Iraq war. The Senate-passed version of the supplemental spending bill restores Byrne grant funding to $660 million.

U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Danny Rehberg. R-Mont., have indicated they support appropriating the anti-drug funds.

Meehan said he was cautiously optimistic Byrne grant funding would be restored.

But even if the Northwest Drug Task Force stops functioning, an anti-drug task force of some kind will continue to operate - even if it is only made up of Flathead County law enforcement agencies.

"We're always going to have officers working nothing but drugs in this county while I'm sheriff. I'm committed to fighting drugs," he said. "But we may have to scale it way back."

Flathead County will still receive federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area funds, which are used mainly for equipment and office space, not personnel, Meehan said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com