Budget conference: House, Senate agree on cuts to AG’s Office, but some jobs may be spared

Lawmakers have agreed to cut dozens of positions from the Attorney General’s Office, with other issues now dominating budget talks.

But with the process bumped to conference Chairs, some of those positions could be saved.

As the budget process began, both chambers sought to eliminate dozens of unfilled jobs within Attorney General James Uthmeier’s Office that had been open for more than 90 days. The House was more aggressive, floating a cut of 122 jobs to save more than $9.26 million, while the Senate preferred cutting 91 jobs for a savings of just under $6.95 million.

Late last week, the House came down to the Senate number, though the line item was not closed out at that time.

Negotiators have since closed out the item, but the House has added a new line item that could see some of those jobs spared.

The House is proposing just over $1.5 million for 18 full-time positions to restore the statewide prosecution workload. That won’t make up for all 91 vacant jobs being cut, however, and as of now, the Senate hasn’t slotted anything for that line item.

Other disagreements between the chambers remain regarding the Attorney General’s Office. The House is proposing $8.7 million for legal programs and services. The Senate wants to spend less than half of that, at just over $3.49 million.

The Senate offer also provides just under $382,000 to relocate the Department of Legal Affairs’ St. Pete office. And the upper chamber wants $14,000 for ethics workload expenses. The House isn’t agreeing to either of those initiatives yet.

The chambers have matched numbers on a few items. Both would put forward nearly $370,000 for IT business continuity and disaster recovery, as well as more than $286,000 for increased operating costs for litigation services. Neither item is grayed out as of yet, but compromise seems likely.

The chambers have a target date of June 16 to approve the budget, meaning they’ll need to agree on numbers by June 13 to satisfy the state’s 72-hour cooling off period before a budget can be signed by the Governor.