DWI program facing shortage

Santa Fe County’s DWI program will take a $164,505 hit this year because of a state Taxation & Revenue Department glitch and a change in how much money the county expects to make from gross receipts taxes.

Rebecca Beardsley, the program’s coordinator, said she does not expect to cut any drunken driving programs because of the changes. The program’s budget for fiscal year 2007 will be $1.1 million, down 12.8 percent from initial projections, she said.

By mistake, the Taxation & Revenue Department overpaid all the state’s counties this year, Beardsley said, and Santa Fe County’s share was $247,000. The program plans to pay back about $100,000 this year and about another $100,000 next year, she said.

The program does not have to pay back $45,694 of the money because it gave that amount back to the state last year, Beardsley said.

The program gave back the money because it received an unexpected $20,000 toward the end of the year last year, Beardsley said, and because the program carefully budgeted and did not spend $25,694.

Beardsley said she decided to give the money back rather than spend it because it was not budgeted and would go into a pool of money set aside for DWI programs in smaller counties.

But in addition to the glitch, Beardsley said, she also heard Monday that the county had adjusted the amount of money officials expected to receive from gross receipts taxes and the program would receive $64,000 less this year.

The program can absorb the hits by cutting capital expenses, reducing operating costs and using money that had been set aside for new projects the program hadn’t started yet, Beardsley said.

The county’s DWI program pays for three DWI officers at the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department and also helps pay for DWI law enforcement efforts at the Santa Fe Police Department, the New Mexico State Police, Tesuque Tribal Police, Pojoaque Tribal Police, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the state Special Investigations Division, Beardsley said.

The program also conducts classes at area schools aimed at preventing DWI, helps pay for DWI offender treatment and monitors DWI offenders as they go through the court system, Beardsley said.

The program has a staff of eight people, including herself, Beardsley said.

Joyce Johnson, bureau chief of the Department of Finance & Administration, would not be back in the office until Monday, according to a phone message. David Harwell, public information officer for the Taxation & Revenue Department, said Johnson would be the best person to talk about the glitch.

Contact Wendy Brown at 986-3072 or wbrown@sfnewmexican.com.