State attorneys, PDs ask lawmakers for resources amid judicial expansion
'It’s incredibly important to have balance in the ecosystem of your criminal justice system within each circuit'
Brian Kramer
Prosecutors and public defenders on Wednesday asked lawmakers for more resources to meet a host of challenges, including rising caseloads associated with a flood of new judges.
The Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis last session agreed to fund 39 new judgeships for FY 2025-26, including 22 circuit judgeships, 15 county court judgeships, and two new judges for the Sixth District Court of Appeal.
Addressing a Senate spending committee, Eighth Circuit State Attorney Brian Kramer said a survey of Florida’s 20 circuits determined that 14 of the new judges will serve in criminal divisions throughout the state.
Prosecutors are asking $8.7 million to pay for 76 additional staff to handle the workload, Kramer said.
“There is a direct workload correlation between the number of judgeships allocation and the number of assistant state attorneys and legal staff required to represent the citizens of Florida,” Kramer said.
The estimate is based, in part, on assigning three assistant state attorneys, and two support staff, to each judge, said Kramer, who serves as treasurer of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association.
FPAA’s highest priority this year is a $35.5 million request to bring state attorney budgets in “underfunded circuits” up to the proper level, he said.
“The definition of an underfunded circuit is a circuit whose actual percentage of the general revenue funding is below the standard allocation based on the funding formula,” Kramer said.
Prosecutors use a formula that considers such things as a circuit’s population, number of arrests, DUI citations, and prison admissions for homicide and robbery, he said.
Some circuits fell behind, in part, because of uneven population growth, and lawmakers increasing spending over the past decade without considering the formula, he said.
“How did we get here?” he said. “Things getting out of skew with smaller prosecutors’ offices.”
Kramer didn’t identify the underfunded circuits in his presentation, but he mentioned the Fifth, where State Attorney William Gladson recently claimed to be at the bottom of the heap.
“If you were to take our total budget — total GR budget — divided by population, we are the lowest funded of all the circuits in the whole state, at around $15 and something in change per person,” Gladson recently told Putnam County officials. “The average is around $22.”
Stacy Scott
Eighth Circuit Public Defender Stacy Scott told the Senate panel that her circuit and 10 others — the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 20th — will need a combined $6 million to pay for 28 FTE’s, or full-time equivalent positions, to handle the workload associated with new judges.
That’s based on assigning two assistant public defenders and one staff person for each new judge, said Scott, president of the Florida Public Defender Association.
Scott said her highest priority this year is a $14 million request to raise assistant public defender starting salaries to $80,000.
Lawmakers set those starting salaries in the General Appropriations Act at $50,000 Scott said, but “nobody hires an attorney for $50,000.”
New assistant public defenders in Florida are being offered $64,000 to $75,000, “depending on where you are in the state, and what funds are available to each circuit to be able to make up that difference in order hire that new attorney,” Scott said. Increasing starting salaries for assistant public defenders — and assistant state attorneys — would bring more balance to the criminal justice system, and bring the General Appropriations Act more in line with reality, she said.
Scott’s second highest priority is a $17 million request to bring assistant public defender pay within 55% of their prosecutor counterparts in each judicial circuit. The ratio has fallen below 50% in some circuits, hamstringing recruiting and threatening the efficient resolution of criminal cases, Scott said.
Despite recent pay raises, turnover among public defenders remains high at 20%, Scott said.
“It’s incredibly important to have balance in the ecosystem of your criminal justice system within each circuit,” she said.
