Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

The Texas Department of Public Safety is planning to use federal stimulus dollars that Gov. Rick Perry begrudgingly accepted from Washington to plug a hole in the border security budget.

The decision follows a mandate by Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and House Speaker Joe Straus that state agencies chop 5 percent out of their bottom lines to meet an anticipated state budget shortfall. For the Department of Public Safety, which is already struggling financially, the cut ordered last month will mean a $14.6 million hit, and border security funds could take the brunt. The agency is proposing to cut $10.3 million in border security grants to local law enforcement, according to an internal e-mail from DPS director Steve McCraw obtained by the Tribune. “I’m not happy that the efforts on the border might be reduced because of this, but that’s part of operating a state agency,” says Texas Public Safety Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky. “Sometimes you have to make hard decisions that are going to be problematic somewhere.”

That hole in border funds, though, could be plugged with $16 million in federal stimulus funds that Perry had already planned to dole out to local agencies for border security operations. Perry groused about taking the $15 billion in stimulus funds that Washington sent to Texas last year and said the money should only be spent on one-time expenditures. Since 2006, Texas has dedicated more than $200 million to border security operations. Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger says his office has not yet reviewed the DPS proposal, but she says spending the stimulus dollars on border security makes sense. “These federal dollars are going for the purpose they should have been going for a long time before now,” Cesinger says. “Securing the border is a federal responsibility.”

Plans for the DPS border security cuts initially came as a shock to local sheriffs, says Don Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition. “If those cuts would have taken place, we would have been dry in the middle of the river,” Reay said. “We’re grateful for that opportunity with Recovery Act money.”

DPS was already $27.5 million in the hole in January, according to McCraw’s e-mail to agency staff earlier this week. He said DPS has been using money from unfilled jobs to keep the agency running. With the mandatory cuts coming on top of the shortfall, the agency will slice funds from several programs, but the largest chunk will come from the $21.9 mllion set aside for grants to border law enforcement agencies over a two-year period. DPS has proposed cutting nearly half that amount. “This would reduce overtime to local law enforcement about 43%,” McCraw wrote. He added that Perry’s office planned to give local departments $16 million for border operations.

To read more go to the Texas Tribune article.