“We are being driven by monetary considerations in everything we do and I do not like it one bit.”

Eighth Circuit State Attorney Bill Cervone, soft-spoken and direct, can list all of the tangible impacts that an approximately 12 percent budget cut has had on his office and what future cuts might do. But he is just as direct about the intangibles surrounding the ongoing state budget crisis and how it has affected his office.

“The worst part of this process is the uncertainty,” Cervone said. “Budget cuts and holdbacks from authorized funding are happening on an unpredictable schedule, and I can no longer assume that what the Legislature appropriated will be there during the balance of the fiscal year. Even if I project sufficient money to fill a position, for example, I run the risk that a future cut will eliminate it. That makes planning virtually impossible.

“There is a serious side effect in terms of morale. Staff had had nothing but bad news about money from all sides for over a year, not to mention additional work due to unfilled positions. There is a real sense of despondency that at some point cannot help but affect work productivity. It is virtually impossible to fix that. All I can do is trust in the dedication of most of my employees to what we are doing, and that will see us through this problem until things improve.”

Cervone has no problem putting hard numbers on his dilemma:

Allotted for 53 attorneys, he’s short seven. He recently hired two attorneys when informed that a potential budget holdback for third quarter expenditures wouldn’t be made. Now he’s worried he won’t be able to keep them if the November economic forecast of a further $2.1 billion revenue shortfall for the state leads to another budget cut. He’s also got a half dozen or so open slots among his nonattorney support staff.

This is how he copes: When his executive director retires in January, Cervone will promote someone from his victims’ assistance program. To fill the victims’ assistance vacancy, he will promote another employee from Project Payback, his juvenile offender restitution program. To fill that vacancy . . . well, he won’t.

Project Payback has gone from three to one employee, and Cervone wants to preserve it, noting several other state attorneys have been forced to close similar programs.

“We’re trying mightily to keep it around in some fashion because it’s been very effective,” he said.

Also, there’s little if any specialization left among his prosecutors. There are no assistant state attorneys, for example, who focus on narcotics cases, Cervone said, and those are passed out among all prosecutors.

The state’s tradition of either holding state attorneys to no budget increase or only a small one was bad enough, he said, but the current crisis doesn’t credit those offices for their years of scrimping, saving, and getting by. State offices and agencies that are well-run and well-managed get the same across-the-board cuts as those that aren’t.

“You’re almost being punished if you’re being fiscally prudent and responsible,” Cervone said. “There’s some hint of micromanaging going on . . . . I don’t see any positives about being fiscally responsible and making ends meet in terms of being told, ‘OK, you’re fine, we won’t do anything more to you.’”

How would he make further cutbacks?

Cervone is cautious when answering that question. He said it has made no difference in serious cases, notably those involving violent crimes.

However, he said, “The decision might go the opposite way on a property crime or a nonviolent crime.”

“We have had those discussions on any number of cases: How much is that going to cost me? Do we have to spend the money on that number of experts?” he said. “We factor expense into extradition decisions far more than we ever used to. I have rejected suggestions that we get involved in this, that, or the other because of expense on minor cases.”

In one such instance, some attorneys handling a civil case involving fraud by a notary approached his office about filing criminal charges. Cervone said he rejected the request, although he would have likely looked into it with a less restrictive budget. Instead, he referred the lawyers to the state agency that regulates notaries.

The Legislature’s addition of costs of prosecution, as well as other fees and fines imposed on those convicted, has caused concern for Cervone, as it has for other state attorneys. The move has been likened to “cash register justice” because of the implied pressure to cut better deals for defendants who can pay the extra costs and fines.

His office is careful to follow the legislative dictates, he said, but “not without feeling, frankly, dirty about it.”

Cervone said he also sees another side effect to those policies.

“The ordinary normal defendant is really the guy next door,” he said. “If I fine somebody an egregious amount because of a felony traffic conviction, then they lose their license because they can’t afford the fine, and then they lose their job because they can’t drive, and then they go out and commit another crime.”