Monday, February 11, 2008
Kentucky Commonwealth Attorney's Say They Need More Funding.
Prosecutors from across the Commonwealth met on Thursday to discuss the lack of sufficient funding for prosecutors in the current state budget bill. At a meeting of the Prosecutors Advisory Council held in Frankfort, approximately 40 elected County and Commonwealth’s Attorneys met to discuss possible prosecutor layoffs that may be necessary unless additional money is added to their budget by the General Assembly.
During the meeting, the Prosecutors Advisory Council reviewed the current budget situation and determined that current staffing levels cannot be maintained without additional funding.
“At this point, our situation is critical, and we may be looking at staff layoffs in all of the 57 judicial circuits,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron, President of the Commonwealth’s Attorneys Association. “The Unified Prosecutorial System budget is personnel driven. We do not have state cars or other expenses that can be cut when we are not funded sufficiently. Therefore, when our budget is cut, it almost certainly involves laying off prosecutors which may affect public safety.”
County Attorneys who attended the meeting also expressed concern about having sufficient staff to handle their prosecutorial duties. “Our budget is over 98% personnel so any cuts for us necessarily may involve the layoff of assistant County Attorneys all across the state. We must be sufficiently funded in order to properly handle our DUI caseload, elder abuse prosecutions and child sex abuse cases,” said Mike Foster, the Christian County Attorney and Legislative Chair for the County Attorneys Association.”
The County and Commonwealth’s Attorneys plan to relay these concerns to members of the legislature on February 13th at the next meeting of the House Budget Review Subcommittee on General Government.
During the meeting, the Prosecutors Advisory Council reviewed the current budget situation and determined that current staffing levels cannot be maintained without additional funding.
“At this point, our situation is critical, and we may be looking at staff layoffs in all of the 57 judicial circuits,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron, President of the Commonwealth’s Attorneys Association. “The Unified Prosecutorial System budget is personnel driven. We do not have state cars or other expenses that can be cut when we are not funded sufficiently. Therefore, when our budget is cut, it almost certainly involves laying off prosecutors which may affect public safety.”
County Attorneys who attended the meeting also expressed concern about having sufficient staff to handle their prosecutorial duties. “Our budget is over 98% personnel so any cuts for us necessarily may involve the layoff of assistant County Attorneys all across the state. We must be sufficiently funded in order to properly handle our DUI caseload, elder abuse prosecutions and child sex abuse cases,” said Mike Foster, the Christian County Attorney and Legislative Chair for the County Attorneys Association.”
The County and Commonwealth’s Attorneys plan to relay these concerns to members of the legislature on February 13th at the next meeting of the House Budget Review Subcommittee on General Government.
# posted by Joe Kinzer @ 4:50 PM 
