TRENTON — A commission studying New Jersey’s system of county prosecutors will release a report today calling for increased cooperation and state support to ease the financial burden of criminal prosecutions on counties, according to three officials with knowledge of the report. The report stops short of a state takeover of prosecutor offices pushed by some county leaders to...
TRENTON — A commission studying New Jersey’s system of county prosecutors will release a report today calling for increased cooperation and state support to ease the financial burden of criminal prosecutions on counties, according to three officials with knowledge of the report.
The report stops short of a state takeover of prosecutor offices pushed by some county leaders to relieve them of the financial burden. Instead, it pinpoints ways counties could share services and rely on the state for legal or even some financial support, the officials said.
Administrative tasks like saving records or storing evidence can be regionalized, sources said.
More conviction appeals, which can be lengthy and costly, may be handled at the state level. Also, the commission will recommend the creation of a state fund, supported by new fines on convicted offenders, to help county prosecutor offices in need of additional money, sources said.
The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the report before its release. A spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie declined comment.
County leaders, particularly those responsible for the state’s major urban areas of Newark, Jersey City and Trenton, have pushed the state to pick up the entire tab for county prosecutors. The full cost of all 21 offices, including employee benefits like health care, is expected to be $450 million this year, according to the New Jersey Association of Counties.
"We were looking for a home run. We got a base hit," Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise said.
The proposal was modeled after the state takeover of the Superior Court system, where the state started running the courts and then began picking up the costs. But that approach simply wasn’t feasible given the state’s tight budget situation, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said.
"There’s no money," he said. "Everyone knows it’s the right thing to do. But the state is in no position to do it."
Last July, Christie appointed a 13-member commission, led by Attorney General Paula Dow, to examine possible cost savings.
County prosecutor offices are the workhorses of the state’s criminal justice system, indicting or filing charges against 98 percent of all defendants in the state in 2008. Leaders like Levinson have chafed at the requirement to provide county funding to state-appointed prosecutors.
"They’re answerable to the attorney general," Levinson said. "But the county taxpayer pays for it."
John Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties, said budgets for prosecutor offices will increase 10 percent this year even though county budgets are dropping 2 percent.