Attorney General Allen Wilson asks subcommittee for $42.6 million in one-time and recurring budget requests

Attorney General Allen Wilson told the Constitutional Budget Subcommittee that his office is requesting $42,631,380 in new funding, including one-time capital and legal appropriations and recurring staff and retention dollars.

Wilson opened with a brief overview of his packet and said he would "give you the bluff, the bottom line up front" before walking committee members through individual requests. He described three headline items: $20 million in additional capital funds to renovate the Rembert C. Dennis building and consolidate the Attorney General's Office into fewer locations; a $15 million one-time allocation for the SAVES (Supplemental Allocation for Victim Services) program to shore up victim-service providers; and recurring funding of roughly $1.6 million to support new full-time positions and retention pay.

Why it matters: Wilson said the AG's Office acts as the state's law firm and that both capital needs and personnel shortfalls are driving the requests. He also characterized the SAVES request as a stopgap to prevent victim-services providers from shuttering while federal VOCA funding remains reduced.

Major requests and explanations

- Capital improvements: Wilson asked for $20 million in nonrecurring capital funding for the Rembert C. Dennis building and related Capitol Complex needs. He said the office has already appropriated $15 million to the project but that architecture plans show significantly higher per-floor costs and that the additional funds would be held in an account and spent conservatively pending the legislature's decisions about long-term facilities on the…