Prosecutors back House pay proposals; public defenders press for earlier pay scale start and $12M conflict funding

Representatives of the Prosecuting Attorney's Council and the Public Defender Council appeared before the subcommittee to discuss competing pay and conflict-defense funding priorities.

Herb Cranford, the DA from Coweta Circuit and PAC budget chair, said PAC supports the House funding for DA and ADA pay (the House-funded top DA pay at $175,000) and explained that the House's choice to fund a pay-scale increase rather than separate step increases is acceptable to PAC; PAC also supports transferring a conflict-defense program into PAC's budget to centralize conflict appointments and relieve individual circuit DAs.

Public Defender Council representatives told senators they seek an earlier start date for an adopted pay scale (they requested step 1 to begin July 1 rather than January), and stressed concerns about the House dropping a $6.2 million operating request for conflict-defense costs. The PD council said it now uses a combination of in-house resources, cross-conflict arrangements and contractor packages (noting a commonly used contract model described as "100 cases for $100,000") to manage costs and said it would request $12,000,000 statewide to cover conflict operating expenses if the Senate does not provide alternative funding.

Committee members asked for detailed contract and cost data for conflict-defense spending; PD council representatives said they would provide that information by the end of the day if requested. Lawmakers did not vote; the items are positioned for discussion as the Senate budgets are negotiated.