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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The State kicked in nearly half a million dollars Tuesday to process more rape kits, but the city council called the mayor out for not giving any money from his budget to pay for testing.

Chief Administrative Officer George Little says they can only send so many rape kits to the lab at a time, and the city has enough money in the bank to pay for testing through July.

The city is ahead of its tax revenues so far this year by more than a million dollars, but WREG learned the council and the administration have different plans when it comes to spending the money.

Jim Strickland said point blank, "This budget that the mayor proposed had zero dollars for rape kits."

In fact, WREG learned he has never allocated a single dollar from his budget for rape kit testing.

Councilman Jim Strickland says the victims need the money more than anyone. He wants extra revenues brought in by city taxes needs to go to help pay for rape kit testing.

This, on the same day the police department got $450,000 from the State Office of Criminal Justice Programs - money they didn't even ask for.

Memphis Police Chief Jim Harvey said, "If you let everybody know you've got a problem, especially something as serious as what we are dealing with here, it calls attention and people come to your aid."

Harvey says the backlog of untested rape kits is a black eye on the city. Harvey says being honest about the problem is helping bring in grants like this.

"Each one of those rape kit investigations averages about 40 hours that will have to be spent on that one case," he said.

He expects to have all 12,000 kits tested and cases processed in the next five years.

In the meantime, city councilors say they are working to shore up any funding gaps with taxpayer dollars instead of playing the "waiting game" on other funding options.

"This is an injustice that has been committed for many, many years. We need to lock that down," Strickland said.