Pima County excluded from border-crime funding by Senate President Russell Pearce
Senate budget bill designed to keep cash from Dupnik
PHOENIX - Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik need not apply for a share of funds in the Senate budget plan to fight border crime.
A provision buried in one of the 13 budget bills approved late Wednesday spells out that the first $1.6 million of available money go to the sheriff of a county with a population of more than 3 million. That applies only to Maricopa County.
The next $500,000 is earmarked for a sheriff in a county of between 300,000 and 500,000, with only Pinal County meeting that definition. And if there’s anything left, it can be allocated to other counties or cities.
But not Pima County: SB 1621 spells out any county with a population between 500,00 [sic] and 2 million “shall not receive any monies from the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement mission fund.”
“That was by design,” Senate President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, told Capitol Media Services. “The sheriff says he’s not going to enforce the law. Why would I fund him?”
Dupnik last year said his agency would not enforce some provisions of the state’s new immigration law.
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Russell Pearce, complete with teabag tie