Attorney General asks legislature for staff, cybersecurity and technology funding in roughly $8.5 million request
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Summary
The attorney general told legislators the office is seeking about $8.5 million in combined recurring and one-time funding to raise starting attorney pay, add investigators and administrative staff for case units, and pay for cybersecurity and workflow software to protect digital evidence and increase efficiency.
The attorney general told the legislative panel he is requesting roughly $8.5 million in new resources for the office, including recurring and one-time funding and a net increase of about 15.35 FTEs to bolster legal, investigative and administrative capacity.
He said the office wants to raise starting attorney salaries from about $66,000 to $75,000 to retain experienced lawyers and avoid compression across pay bands. "We want this to be the destination office," he said, arguing higher starting pay must be accompanied by adjustments across rank bands so longer-serving attorneys do not fall behind.
The request includes specific staffing and program additions: three FTEs (one administrative coordinator and two investigators) for the violent-crimes case reduction "V-Crew" mobile unit to help rural solicitors move backlog cases; a second investigator for the state grand jury section; two attorney FTEs for the capital and collateral litigation section to address appellate and death-penalty workloads; and mixed federal and state FTEs for the vulnerable-adults and Medicaid-provider unit. The attorney general said the V-Crew has helped move older murder cases in circuits such as Sumter and Darlington and that local solicitors have asked for more assistance.
On technology and security, the office is seeking a one-time $2.3 million investment in a cyber-vault storage solution for ransomware protection and $500,000 in recurring support. The presentation also asked for a $350,000 one-time purchase of workflow software (an option named in discussion as "NetDock") and $150,000 in recurring licensing and hosting fees, which official Tammy Wilson described as a prompting and task-tracking system to reduce administrative redundancy. The office is also requesting a $172,000 upgrade to its Westlaw legal-research subscription for an AI-enhanced feature the office has trialed.
The attorney general highlighted that the office recovers substantial revenue for the state and uses those recoveries to offset some requests: "we pay for ourselves," he said, pointing to a table showing about $71.36 million in recoveries last year from securities fees, civil settlements and Medicaid-provider fraud actions. He described some requests as fee-funded or requiring authorization rather than new appropriation, for example an FTE for the money-services examiner to be funded through licensing revenue.
Senators pressed for details on costs and staffing mixes. Questions focused on fringe-benefit assumptions (staff described fringe as roughly 47–50 percent of salary plus operating costs), whether the V-Crew is truly "mobile" in the sense of a vehicle or a rotating team (the AG clarified it is a traveling team of prosecutors, investigators and victim advocates), and how new starting salaries might ripple across other agencies. The AG recommended careful pay-band adjustments to avoid internal inequities and suggested that recruitment and retention require broader adjustments across series of positions, not just attorneys.
The AG closed by noting the office's increased operational footprint in the former "Dentist Building," which now houses most of the office and has generated a $750,000 rent increase payable to the Department of Administration. He concluded by thanking committee members for their consideration and offering to provide the detailed headcounts and spreadsheets requested during the hearing.
The committee did not take a vote at the end of the presentation; members asked follow-up questions and the hearing moved on to other agency budget requests.
