In an interview Thursday with The News Courier, Brian C.T. Jones, Limestone County District Attorney, spoke about what he states as the office’s lack of appropriate funding from the state which has resulted in a layoff of employees amid an increased workload. County officials have said “they will look everything over.”

Jones said the State of Alabama only partially funds the District Attorney’s Office, coming out to “a little less than 50%” of their total finances. As a result, the District Attorney’s Office was forced to lose two victim service officers and one assistant district attorney.

“I spend more time probably working on money than anything else, our income has been staying about the same, but the problem is the payroll,” Jones said. “We’ve unfortunately gotten to the point where we have to layoff people.”

The finance chairs for both the House and Senate of the state worked to get the District Attorney more funds than the previous two years, according to Jones. Previously the office had received $447,097.

“I am very thankful that the legislator has upped my amount this year,” Jones said. “Next year, the State of Alabama is going to give me $534,932. Just salaries alone, with my existing staff, it’s $820,685.20.”

With the funds as it is now, when the next fiscal year arrives on Oct. 1, the office will already be upside down $285,753.20, according to Jones. That number does not include the anticipated operating costs, which will force the office to somehow make up $434,689.71.

“I know that I’m going to get a bill from the State of Alabama, I have to find that money to pay it back,” Jones said. “This is not a state problem, this is a state and county problem.”

Jones informed The News Courier that he will appeal to the Limestone County Commission on Monday, July 15, asking to be included in the upcoming general fund budget for the county’s 2024-2025 fiscal year.

“What we are going to ask the county for is $263,924.50,” Jones said. “That’s just solely the salaries and benefits, we’ll absorb the cost of new computers and things like that.”

According to Jones, the computers at the office are nearly a decade old, so they will have to bring in new ones which will add to the operating cost that they will be tasked with covering.

District 1 Commissioner Daryl Sammet talked to The News Courier on Friday, July 12, about the budgeting process for the upcoming general fund budget.

“On Monday, we will have about 6-8 more appeals, and we will take it all and look everything over,” Sammet said. “We go one department at a time, and if everything is within reason we will try and take care of it.”

Limestone County Commission Chairman Collin Daly also talked to the News Courier on Friday, noting the what the budgeting process for the general fund looks like for the commissioners.

“This is something that we do every year, and we have to have it approved before Oct. 1,” Daly said. “Hopefully, sometime the first or second meeting of September we will have it ready.”

The District Attorney’s Office has also sent out a letter to victims that urged them to demand support from the commission.

“One of the reasons we sent the letters to the victims, they’ve got some skin in the game,” Jones said. “The VSO (victims service officer) is a full-time advocate of the victim, because that’s the person who sits with you during trial and does whatever we need to do to accommodate that victim. Both of those spots, because of the funding, have disappeared.”

Jones noted that he has spoken to members of the Commission previously, but felt as if they were deflecting the situation to the State to handle.

Daly mentioned that the appeal from Jones will be looked over like the other appeals, but that he is not confident in the funds being there for the District Attorney’s office.

“He is a state office and we are trying to worry about county offices,” Daly said. “He has asked two-or-three different request over the last several years, but it looks like it’s going to be the same as always.”

The district attorney explained why the commission possibly deflecting to the State was a bad idea for not just his office, but for the residents of Limestone County.

“The problem with that is, if you are a victim in this community you don’t really care what is going on in Montgomery or with the State,” Jones said. “One of the number one responsibilities to the people in this community is public safety. If we can’t keep crime under control, and the criminals start winning, word of mouth is going to be this is not a safe place to live.”