Iowa may soon see a significant cut in grants that officials say decreased the number of methamphetamine labs in Story County in previous years.

Capt. Gary Foster, who heads the Central Iowa Drug Task Force, said Iowa relies on a local law enforcement block grant and the Byrne Formula Grant Program, both given by the Department of Justice, in order to fight drug crimes.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a proposal that would cut funds for those grants from about $5.5 million to a little more than $3.7 million.

Dale Woolery, associate director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, said the House’s proposal would combine the grants, creating the Justice Assistance Grants.

This action, he said, will cut Iowa’s drug enforcement fund by almost 33 percent.

The proposal, if passed by the Senate, will go into effect for the 2005 fiscal year.

Dennis Wiggins, the assistant director of programs for the Office of Drug Control Policy, said Iowa’s funds for fighting drug crime were at an all-time high in 1998, but have decreased by more than 72 percent since that year.

The grants help treat addicts and pay for officers and prosecutors to concentrate on reducing the use and sale of illegal drugs.

Because Iowa has the second-most reported meth labs in the country, Wiggins said, the state actually needs an increase in funding to support its police officers and prosecutors.

“The increase is needed due to adjustments in the cost of living,” he said.

Iowa employs 54 local police and nine prosecutors that specialize in drug enforcement.

Foster said this cut in drug enforcement funds would affect the local area. The decrease in funds would lead to loss of manpower, he said.

Story County has two employees — an investigator and a prosecutor — working on drug enforcement, Foster said. Those employees receive approximately 75 percent of their salaries and benefits from the Byrne grant.

Foster said the employees are at risk of losing their jobs unless the money can be found elsewhere, which would be through tax dollars.

Without funds, local police have few ways of finding dealers and making cases against them, Foster said.