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Pressing State on School Resource Officers

As Niagara County lawmakers pass a resolution calling for the state to fund school resource officers, one local sheriff says some lawmakers may be trying to complicate the issue with their own agendas.

LOCKPORT, NY - Supporters of a fully funded school resource officer program obviously point to the very real need to safeguard children in the classrooms and hallways. But obviously cost is also a very real factor as well. For example it cost the Starpoint School District over $40,000 to cover the cost of a county deputy in that position in 2016 for the high school.

But Tuesday night, the Niagara County Legislature voted unanimously to back the state sheriff association in its call for such staffing of a school resource officer in every school. This comes as reports come from Albany of a $4.4 Billion dollar budget deficit and other funding pressures.

2 On Your Side asked Legislature Minority Leader, Dennis Virtuoso, if it was really necessary for the legislature to go on record in this matter since lawmakers may already be hearing from their constituents.

He responded "Well, the more counties that go on record and I'm sure this resolution is gonna follow suit through other counties and the more pressure we put on them...because the budget is gonna pass in the next couple of weeks."

We also spoke with Niagara County Sheriff, James Voutour, on this issue.

"I spent a full day in Albany two weeks ago and there seems to be the will to get it done...unfortunately sometimes you see they wanna tie other things to funding for school resource officers. I think everyone is in agreement but they're trying to attach other things with their own agendas."

Voutour says maybe the state could allow school districts to override their spending and tax caps strictly to pay for school resource officers but lawmakers and the Governor would have to permit that.

2 On Your Side reached out to some key state lawmakers in the region to see where they stand but we did not hear back.

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