Polygamy

Texas Lawmakers Adding Up Costs Of Polygamy Case

AUSTIN (AP) ― State lawmakers started adding up Tuesday the "extraordinary" costs related to the raid on a polygamist sect's ranch last month and began trying to figure out where to find the expected $30 million the case will eventually cost over the next year.

"We basically need to pay what it's going to cost to do the job right and we need to know, to the best of your ability, what that cost is so we can factor that in when we're making decisions about other worthwhile costs and needs in this state," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden told Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins during a hearing Thursday.

Hawkins said it would cost about $1.7 million a month for the state to care for more than 460 children who were removed from the ranch last month and are now scattered in foster-care facilities around the state. Authorities believe members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who run the ranch, pushed underage girls into marriage and sex.

One lawmaker questioned whether the state could make the adults left behind on the 1,700-acre ranch -- valued at $20.5 million -- foot the state's bill.

"I would encourage you to aggressively pursue any of those assets to fund this," said Republican Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville. State health and human services officials said they were still trying to figure out which ranch residents are the children's biological parents.

The initial raid cost an estimated $5.3 million, mostly in travel to the isolated Schleicher County ranch and employee overtime during the weeklong raid and search of the Yearning For Zion ranch last month. The state also paid for buses, building and equipment rental and fuel.

At least $2.2 million will be needed to help the local courts handle legal proceedings for each child.

Ben Woodward, a state district judge in Tom Green County, said the local courts in his county and Schleicher County, where the ranch is located, are ill-equipped to handle the unprecedented undertaking.

"It is a pretty desperate situation and a red flag for the judiciary," Woodward said. "We are funded on this case pretty much by the counties and they simply don't have it."

Woodward said the legal costs would exceed $2.2 million. Schleicher County's total budget was $3.9 million, he said.

Because the state did not anticipate the raid when they wrote the current budget last year, it will be tricky to find the money and make it available before the Legislature's next scheduled session in January.

There are mechanisms within the state's $168 billion budget to address unexpected costs.

Money set aside for County Essential Services Grants can be used at the discretion of Gov. Rick Perry. Perry has said the state would do whatever was necessary to cover the costs of the raid and its aftermath.

State emergency funds also could be used, but only if Perry declares the situation an emergency. Perry's office did not immediately return a call seeking comment on whether the situation constitutes a state emergency.

"I'm reasonably convinced that there's enough money in the state to do this if we want to," Ogden said.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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