SACRAMENTO - State legislators on Thursday approved a budget deal that includes $500,000 law enforcement grants for rural counties, a cause that Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, has championed since her first term.

“Every program is in danger when the state faces a budget deficit,” said Berg. “So I’m very happy that we have once again kept the faith with the people who live in rural areas.”

Berg, a member of the Assembly Rural Caucus, has fought for the funds every year since she was elected. The $18.5 million budget item provides $500,000 to each of 37 counties with large rural areas.

In 2003, when Berg first took office, then-Gov. Gray Davis sought to eliminate the rural public safety grants as part of his plan to close a $38 billion deficit.

Berg and fellow Rural Caucus members insisted the money be restored. It was. Then, last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a budget plan that, like his predecessor’s, would have stripped rural counties of this assistance. Berg once again rallied with her colleagues to have the money restored.

“This is money for basic, bread-and-butter public safety services,” she said. “We need to do everything we can to ensure that people in rural areas, whether in Humboldt, or Lake, Mendocino, Trinity, or Del Norte counties, have good law enforcement to protect them.”