"We need a better mechanism for paying these costs than just pulling money from the general fund."

The SAR group I participated in very often received donations from the rescued. In fact donations more than covered the counties SAR costs and enabled extra money to be spent in education at the 4th grade and adult levels. The people rescued were nearly always otherwise very responsible people in their regular lives, they were just out of their element. Several of the rescued went on to learn and volunteer in the SAR group.

Unless someone is acting criminally, I think we as a people should just cover the cost of rescue.