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District attorneys want increased state funding By JIM DAVIS The Jackson County district attorney and a statewide counties association called for state lawmakers on Tuesday to increase funding for district attorney offices. Mark Huddleston said he supports a bill in Salem that would give an additional $10 million a year to county general funds, with nearly a third of it earmarked for prosecutors. The state now gives about $4.46 million a year to county district attorneys, and counties pay the majority of the costs. "This is not a situation where we're going to start dismissing cases tomorrow (because of lack of funding)," Huddleston said at press conference Tuesday morning. But Huddleston said he wants the state to step up and become a partner with counties in funding prosecutor services. Lauren Moughon, of the Association of Oregon Counties in Portland, said counties have paid more and more district attorney costs in the past 25 years. The association began a campaign for the bill in Medford because of this area's prominent lawmakers, she said. "These are all guys who talk tough on crime," Moughon said. "We need them to put their money where their mouth is." About $47.2 million a year is spent on district attorneys statewide, Moughon said. Of that, the state chips in $4.46 million, the federal government gives about $4.9 million in grants, and individual counties pay for the rest, about $37.8 million. The state has built several prisons, and lawmakers in Salem have proposed adding 100 Oregon State Police troopers. Moughon said those troopers will generate thousands of additional cases each year and the district attorneys will need to prosecute those cases. She said some counties are foregoing prosecution on first offenses for minor crimes such as vandalism and shoplifting. Huddleston said that hasn't happened in Jackson County, but his deputy district attorneys are using nontraditional methods of handling crimes, such as deferring sentencing, to avoid court fees. His office, with a proposed budget of $2.4 million for the coming budget year, has 14 deputy district attorneys and a total staff of 36 employees. He said each deputy district attorney handles 250 to 800 cases a year. Huddleston said that crime -- especially violent crime -- is down, but he believes the decrease is the result of aggressive police work and prosecution. And, he said, state lawmakers and voters have added work, for instance by making some domestic abuse cases felonies and by instituting Measure 11, which sets mandatory sentences for some crimes. "The workload is there," Huddleston said. "The resources are lacking." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA