An ongoing series on the state budget
By Patti Epler The Arizona Guardian

Two years of substantial budget cuts are taking their toll on state agencies struggling to provide services and maintain critical programs.

More than 100 agencies have filed fiscal year 2011 budget requests with the governor's office, documents that provide grim detail of things that have already been eliminated or reduced. They warn of dire consequences if they have to sustain more cuts.

But more cuts seem unavoidable, not only for FY 2011 but for the current year. Gov. Jan Brewer has asked agency directors to send her scenarios that envision cuts of 15 percent and 20 percent that may be necessary to balance a budget that is at least $1 billion short two months into the fiscal year.

Those scenarios are due on the governor's desk in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the Guardian reviewed FY 2011 requests for numerous agencies to see what issues they are facing.

Today: Department of Public Safety
The ability to keep Highway Patrol vehicles on the road and basic communications systems operating are among the top concerns for DPS, which is already seeing its force dwindle as officers leave and they're no longer being replaced.

The agency also is worried that its signature gang and immigration enforcement unit, GIITEM, will suffer, crime lab equipment is becoming obsolete and mandates put in place by state and federal laws won't be met.

Overall, DPS is asking for about $241 million in funds appropriated by the Legislature, up slightly from the FY 2010 budget. Another $65 million would come from non-appropriated funds, like federal grants and other pots of money earmarked for DPS.

In a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer, DPS director Roger Vanderpool suggests the governor might want to continue extending the photo enforcement contract which expires in July. It can be continued if both the state and Redflex, the contractor, agree. But photo radar is the subject of at least one ballot initiative to prohibit the cameras, and lawmakers came close to banning it this past session.

That program reaped about $26 million in FY 2010 and the agency is anticipating the same revenue flow from speeding tickets in FY 2011, according to the budget documents.
DPS also is concerned that a three-year project approved by the Legislature to upgrade the state's microwave radio system that patrol officers and other agencies rely on for communications has stalled.

Phil Case, DPS's budget chief, said the state has been working to switch the system's 70 towers from analog to digital. The analog technology is obsolete and replacement parts aren't even available anymore, he said.

DPS has been working on the upgrade in three "loops" and the southern loop is expected to be finished by the end of the year. But work on the northern and western loops has been suspended because the money is no longer available, he said.

The agency also has stopped replacing vehicles that are wearing out; funding was reduced in FY 2009 and cut altogether in FY 2010. So by FY 2011 DPS anticipates the need to replace 492 Highway Patrol, "an unusually high number," according to the budget request. Previously, about 225 cars a year were replaced when they hit 100,000 miles, about a fifth of the 1,100-vehicle fleet.

"We think we can get by for a year reasonably well without any officer safety issues," Case said. "However, when we get to 2011 we feel like we will need the budget restored to be able to buy new vehicles."

Jim Mann, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police in Arizona which represents many DPS employees, said its "very, very essential" the cars are replaced when necessary.

"Those vehicles are one of the primary tools in our toolbox and they do wear out," he said. "We certainly don't want to have officers driving those when they're unsafe."

One of DPS' major initiatives, the GIITEM program, also is in need of attention in the FY 2011 budget, officials say.

The task force brings together multiple agencies throughout the state to combat gang- and immigration-related crime, and has been operating on about $25 million a year to do a range of enforcement activities, from maintaining a sophisticated database of documented gang members to drop house raids to human smuggling arrest and detention.

But DPS says it will come up about $4 million short in FY 2011 because some funding is running out, and even that's down several million dollars from FY 2009 levels. The program has already cut $1 million and eliminated an identity theft task force, and sliced another $700,000 that had gone to county attorneys for gang prosecutions.

Other budget issues include how to replace obsolete lab equipment for the DPS crime lab, which agencies throughout the state rely on for evidence analysis. Manufacturers of the equipment upgrade it about every five years, so the state needs about $700,000 to keep up with the retooling schedule, the budget document says.

But that money was eliminated in FY 2010 to help balance the budget so it's "critical" that it be restored in FY 2011, DPS says.

Another pressing need involves replacing radios to meet a Federal Communications Commission mandate that all public safety radios operate on narrow bands by 2013. Older radios will have to be replaced and Case says that is one of the more expensive retrofits the department is facing; the agency needs more than $900,000 in 2011 just to get started.

And in 2007, the state passed a law requiring DPS to take DNA samples from people convicted of certain crimes. The DNA results were to be entered into a nationwide database and the Legislature appropriated as much as $3.5 million a year for the program.

But, due to budget cuts in the last two cycles, the appropriation was dropped to about $380,000, putting the program way behind, the budget document says.

On a larger scale, the agency also is worried about its ability to recruit and retain qualified officers. Pay is not keeping pace with other agencies  -- a parity issue -- and the loss of about 80 officers a year on average will be difficult to make up once the department can start hiring again.

"The days of having a thousand people show up to look for a law enforcement job are long gone," said Mann, noting that even when 1,000 people applied, only about 100 made it past the background checks to be seriously considered for hiring. "Lately it's more like 100 show up and then you maybe have 10 to work with."

Mann said law enforcement agencies from around the country send recruiting teams to Arizona to woo the best cops. If DPS or other local agencies fall behind in pay and training opportunities, they lose their officers.

"At some point it becomes critical," he said. "You're so far behind and you're competing with other agencies that you're faced with putting even more money in to bring the parity back."