Ryan Nicol
House budget negotiators want to eliminate 318 positions with State Attorney’s Offices for budget savings reaching nearly $18.2 million.
The cuts would affect positions that had been unfilled for more than 90 days. That’s part of a string of such cuts the House has proposed in its various budget silo plans.
But so far, the Senate isn’t agreeing, with that line zeroed out in the upper chamber’s latest offer.
The Senate proposes to allocate funds for eight additional staff members in specialty diversion courts, at a cost of nearly $759,000. But the House doesn’t have any money in its budget.
The House allocates nearly $3.6 million to replace vehicles, an expense the Senate isn’t yet in agreement with. The Senate does add nearly $415,000 in a separate line item for new vehicles, however.
The chambers are also more than $1 million apart regarding funding for IT personnel services, with the Senate slotting $2.47 million but the House only allotting $1.43 million.
Overall, the Senate is offering more than $22.5 million more in total for State Attorney expenses than the House does in its budget.
The conference committee between the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice and the House Justice Budget Subcommittee began on Tuesday, part of a budget process that has finally seen a spark following weeks of deadlock after the 60-day mark.
Other disagreements between the chambers regarding the State Attorney’s budget include the Senate’s offer of nearly $511,000 for public records management and almost $180,000 for body camera evidence review. The House has $0 designated for those purposes.
The Senate also is seeking to offset cuts through the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) by adding $1.69 million in increased funding, as well as nearly $280,000 for enhanced trust fund authority for VOCA grants. The Senate also wants $500,000 to expand other services to support office operations.
Thus far, the lower chamber is not agreeing to offer any money for those initiatives.
