Posted on 07/06/2007 11:53:33 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas — Texas border sheriffs who won repeated praise from Gov. Rick Perry during his re-election bid for their front-line battles against violent crime now say they feel like they're on the back burner.
Only a small portion of about $110 million approved by lawmakers this year for border security will go directly to border counties for day-to-day operations.
Instead, about $93 million is going to state police and state-run operations, the big winners being the Texas Department of Public Safety and the governor's Department of Emergency Management. There are no guarantees that any additional law enforcement officers will wind up on the border.
Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores said he blames lawmakers who "played politics" with the governor over the issue.
The final product looks almost nothing like what the sheriffs envisioned when they accompanied Perry at campaign stops, in TV ads and at news conferences before last year's election.
"Three times more troopers means three times more ticket writers," frustrated Zapata County Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez told The Dallas Morning News. "The DPS can do all they can, but it's not border security."
Gonzalez, a Democrat, appeared in two campaign ads for Perry, a Republican.
About $17 million of the state border security money will help local law enforcement agencies pay for overtime and equipment. It won't pay for more officers along a border that, in some places, is mostly patrolled by sheriff's deputies.
"We got screwed. We were at the bottom of the totem pole," said Flores, whose Webb County deputies recently confiscated $2 million in cash allegedly headed to a Mexican cartel and 1,000 pounds of cocaine headed north.
Aides to Perry said the border would see most of the money, even if it's not directly controlled by local agencies. Most of the $63 million earmarked for "surge operations" and overtime under the Texas Department of Emergency Management would be used by sheriffs and police, said Perry spokesman Robert Black.
"I would venture to guess that the border region is going to see a lot more than $17 million," he said.
Some of the money will be spent in other regions of the state, he said, to combat crime that comes "as a result of the porous border" — such as drug gangs in big cities or trafficking along the highways.
"But the governor, of all people, is well aware that it's best to stop it at the river," Black said. "Border security starts at the border."
Several legislators said they preferred sending the money to the DPS and other state-run operations because they can better control its use. They also said state agencies can more easily absorb the loss if the programs aren't funded in the next state budget.
"It's an enormous amount of money, and we need to be cautious about how we go forward with it," said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham. "Let's see what we can accomplish in the next 18 months, and then in the (next) session we may say we need to look more to the locals and tip our hat to them."
But Flores says that means working his deputies to the point of exhaustion, risking high turnover and leaving no way to "deal with the fact that we don't have enough boots on the ground."
"My people here in Webb County are just tired of working overtime," Flores said. "They've gotten to the point where they're saying the overtime pay is not everything."
___
Information from The Dallas Morning News: http://www.dallasnews.com
Build the fence,
Hosed again. The State boys always get the big bucks.
Border Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
ping
Nothing corrupt ever happens in Texass.
In other words they are really, really, corrupt, and this makes it easier to give contracts and kickbacks to their cronies.
My sympathies are for the border sheriffs.
“They’ve gotten to the point where they’re saying the overtime pay is not everything.”
For a lot of people who work overtime, taxes end up eating about half of the extra pay. It’s not really worth it.
Totally unbelievable that he would do that!
</heavy, heavy sarcasm>
Not mine. 17 mil divided by $50K per officer would put 680 boots on the ground (340) officers. The local law enforcement is making WAY more than enough on local auctions of goods confiscated from illegal smugglers. If you don’t believe me, just ask the sheriff. He’s the one with the gold Presidential, climbing into the $80K ‘sheriff’ truck. The state agencies might be crooked, but nothing near what goes on in south Texas. I have worked as a vendor for county government in Texas for the past 12 years. IMHO, anything south of San Antonio is north Mexico.
Whoa! Didn’t know about that. Thanks for the eye opener.
B U M P
Demand a border fence! Build it NOW!! Beef up the border patrol and close our borders!
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Courtesy of a pro-amnesty group, no less!!
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