Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs asks Appropriations for funding to ease caseloads and curb transport overtime

The Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs told the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 12 that rising violent-crime filings and chronic staffing pressures require targeted FY27 funding changes.

"About $35,000,000 budget, 4 different budgets," said Tim Liebers Dumont, executive director of the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs, introducing the department's request and staff. He said pending criminal cases statewide fell from about 26,000 to 22,000 over three years — a roughly 15% reduction — but that the department still faces heavy workload pressures, including a roughly 23%–24% increase in filed homicides and 111 pending homicide matters as of the presentation.

Why it matters: The department said high homicide filings and a small group of repeat defendants are consuming disproportionate prosecution resources, limiting the office's ability to move nonviolent dockets. "A minority of defendants are taking up most of our time," Liebers Dumont said, noting defendants with three or more open dockets account for about 43% of dockets.

Key requests: Liebers Dumont and Annie Noonan, the department's fiscal lead, asked the committee to (1) eliminate the FY27 vacancy-savings line (listed as $330,392), (2) increase operating expense support for expert witnesses, transcripts and extraditions, and (3) add staff where workload is heaviest — specifically six administrative positions and four victim advocates (costs to be provided). Noonan said the department's baseline FY27 increase is about 5.7%, driven mainly by salaries, health insurance and retirement.

Transport program and overtime: The department flagged its transport program as an acute pressure point. "In the last full fiscal year, we did 4,035 transports," Liebers Dumont said, noting the program is authorized for 25 FTEs with 21 positions currently filled and significant overtime costs. He and staff described a complex supervision arrangement in which transport deputies are state employees but their day-to-day assignments are driven by local sheriffs, complicating scheduling and increasing overtime. The department estimated transport overtime at nearly 80% of its current-year budget and said policy changes and administrative orders are being pursued to curb overtime.

Data-driven context: The presentation drew on a multi-year judicial data-filing project the department is compiling and on FBI NIBRS data for statewide crime trends. Liebers Dumont cited trial-date activity as central to case clearance (540 trial dates over roughly 900 days) and provided year-by-year trial counts (2023: 143; 2024: 219; 2025: 178). He also cited AOT crash data when discussing traffic fatalities and said DUIs comprise roughly 17%–18% of pending cases.

Training and non-attorney capacity: The department asked for a sustained training budget to support state's attorneys, sheriffs, victim advocates and administrative staff and proposed expanding use of legal professionals who are not licensed attorneys to move backlog more flexibly.

Next steps: The department committed to provide the committee with a simplified cost breakdown for the requested administrative and victim-advocate positions, exact county-level numbers referenced in the presentation, and additional detail on proposed transport-policy changes. No formal votes or motions were taken during the presentation.

The committee continued questioning after the presentation and the department said it would follow up with requested materials.