Sheriff says state budget plan has new duties, no money to fund them

4/7/2005

BOWLING GREEN - Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said yesterday that Republican Gov. Bob Taft's proposed tax and budget proposals could leave his department without enough money to execute important new tasks mandated but not funded by the state government.

The sheriff, a Republican, said at a news conference that his deputies are spending significant amounts of time processing concealed weapons applications, registering sex offenders, and obtaining DNA samples from inmates, new tasks imposed by Columbus.

Dale Butland, a Democratic Party operative and leader of a group opposing the Taft plan, said the news conference was designed to get the attention of state Sen. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green).

Mr. Gardner said recently he has yet to make up his mind about the Taft proposals.