State’s attorney urges maintaining staff levels as budget cuts would reduce prosecutions and victim services

The state’s attorney told the Judicial & Public Safety Committee on Aug. 14 that proposed large cuts to her office would force prosecutors to stop handling categories of crimes and eliminate specialized units and victim services.

The office presented an FY2026 budget in which roughly 60% of office funding is county‑funded and about 40% comes from grants and other revenue. The state’s attorney said recently awarded grants include a $1,000,000 DCEO award funding an Exposed Human Exploitation Unit (HEU) and two JAG grants totaling roughly $400,000 that cover portions of existing personnel costs. She said those grants are included in the FY2026 submission and are restricted to the programs they fund.

“Cut $2.2 million from that budget, that means I'm firing 26 employees,” the state’s attorney said, explaining the tradeoffs: child‑exploitation investigations, special‑victims prosecutions, deferred‑prosecution diversion work, abuse/neglect prosecutions and specialty courts would be at risk. She urged the committee to factor grant revenue and reimbursements into the budget review and said the office has returned money in prior years when not spent.

Chief financial staff for the state’s attorney’s office presented reconciliations showing differences in year‑to‑year comparisons depending on whether analysts compare FY2026 to FY2024 actuals or to FY2025 adopted budgets, and he noted several one‑time events (such as a 2023 bowling‑tournament billing and a lump‑sum grant payment) that made some prior years appear higher.

Committee members discussed possible net amounts after newly approved grants; the state’s attorney said that after recognizing approved grant revenue the net requested increase would be smaller (she cited a net need on the order of $1.4 million in general‑fund support). The committee took no formal vote; the office’s budget materials were accepted for review.