DOJ seeks $3 million increase in spending

From Delaware State News

DOVER — The Delaware Department of Justice is seeking about $3 million more, including 17 additional positions, for the upcoming fiscal year, Attorney General Kathy Jennings told budget officials Wednesday.

The Office of Management and Budget is currently in the midst of the annual fall budget hearings, where about 30 state agencies and organizations present their asks for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Wednesday was only the third day of presentations, which are slated to continue for another two weeks.

After the hearings wrap up one week before Thanksgiving, Gov. John Carney will work with budget officials to craft his spending recommendations. Those will be presented in the second half of January, allowing the General Assembly five months to review those suggestions before voting on them in late June.

This year’s statewide operating budget totals $4.45 billion in general funds, which mostly consist of taxes and similar revenues.

The Department of Justice is receiving $38.6 million this year, up about $1.8 million from the prior year. A little more than $1.7 million of the requested $3 million increase would go to funding 17 positions: eight deputy attorneys general, six paralegals, one social worker, one criminal investigator and one administrative specialist.

Those added positions, Ms. Jennings said, would help the agency put more focus on prosecuting sex crimes, defending civil rights, protecting the elderly and the young alike, preventing data breaches, helping individuals with immigration issues and cracking down on instances of people trying to defraud the government.

 

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