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County attorney outlines budget, victim services grant and restorative-practices funding
Summary
Pine County's county attorney told commissioners the law library is self-funded, victim services are largely covered by a stable federal grant, and most 2026 budget growth in the attorney's office is salary-driven; he also highlighted a $244,500 restorative-practices grant that may offset juvenile-program costs.
County Attorney Reese reviewed his office's 2026 budget lines for the Pine County Board of Commissioners, covering the law library, victim services and the main county-attorney operating budget.
Rasmussen (Reese) described the law library as effectively a zero-budget operation funded by a $10 fee assessed on court cases; a reserve of roughly $40,000 has persisted because expenditures are modest and conservative. On victim services, he said the office receives a federal grant that provides about $70,000 per year and funds most of the victim services coordinator's salary. Reese said that since 2018 the coordinator has worked with 11,601 victims who came through the court system; he also described a statutory victims-rights framework that requires notifications and services.
Reese highlighted a restorative-practices grant worth $244,500 (mentioned earlier in the probation presentation) and said the grant would likely reshape some juvenile services costs by covering incentives and programming that previously came from probation or county attorney budgets.
On the county attorney office, Reese said most of the 2026 increase is salary and benefits (he estimated a roughly 3% increase overall and said 96'97% of the proposed increase comes from wages). He also discussed restricted funds set aside for prosecutorial needs such as expert witnesses; Reese described a recent homicide case requiring roughly $20,000 in expert and testing costs drawn from restricted prosecutorial funds.
Reese asked commissioners for continued support to keep salaries competitive and said stable, experienced staff reduce long-term costs and risks to the county.
Ending: Reese closed by thanking the board, noting that most of his budget growth request is compensation and that the restorative-practices grant offers an offset for juvenile work.
