OK, this is kinda funny

by David Safier

Tim Steller has a dizzying-but-amusing article in the Star about the $5 million that was supposed to go to Pinal Sheriff Paul Babeu. Let me see if I got this straight.

There never was $5 million for Babeu. As the original bill was written, it was supposed to be a sweep from photo radar traffic ticket revenues. But that fund only has $1.4 million, and other bills are trying to sweep up those dollars. Oops.

So Pearce says OK, we'll make it $1.7 million, and it will come from the "Fill the Gap" program. FtG was set up when they increased the number of police, to help the criminal justice system handle the increase in arrests it had to deal with.

So if Babeu arrests more people, where will the money come from to prosecute them, let alone the money to cover the current level of prosecution? Oops.

Last year, the "Fill the Gap" fund paid out about 973 thou to county attorneys. Pearce wants to sweep up 973 thou. So, more arrests (if Babeu does his job), but less money than we used last year for prosecution. And Pearce would sweep about 700 thou from indigent defense, which spent about 500 thou last year. Unless there's an endless pot of FtG money waiting to be tapped, there's no way this is going to work.

Pearce should stay with his strengths: sticking it to minorities, the young, the old and the sick. He obviously can't make sense out of dollars and cents.