Attorney General outlines office role, budget growth and public-safety priorities in oversight review

Attorney General Wilson presented a wide-ranging review of the Office of the Attorney General to the Senate Oversight Subcommittee, describing the office's constitutional and statutory authority, staffing and budget growth, major revenue recoveries for the state, and current public-safety priorities including internet crimes against children and a mobile violent-crimes case reduction unit.

Wilson told senators the attorney general is “the chief prosecuting officer of the state’’ and walked the subcommittee through the office’s divisions, statutory responsibilities and recent organizational changes, including the 2017 consolidation of crime victim services under the AG's office.

Wilson said the office has grown substantially since mid-20th century staffing levels and cited current full-time-equivalent (FTE) counts and budget figures to illustrate that growth. He said the office reported about 310 FTEs in summer 2024 and that appropriations for 2024 totaled approximately $115.4 million, broken down as roughly $28.7 million in general fund appropriations, $26.7 million in earmarked fees/fines, and about $60 million in federal funds passed through the office. Wilson told the subcommittee the office’s recoveries and settlements returned tens of millions annually to the state — citing $67 million recovered…