ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, SportsGovernor aims to maintain public safety

Governor Robert Bentley says public safety is a top-priority. That's why his proposed budgets do not cut funding for the jails or state troopers.

But other reductions could have an unintended affect on criminal activity.

Jefferson County's district attorney says what you don't immediately see is the snowball affect that comes from cutting other agencies, like his office and the court system. He says that would result in delays and more criminals on the street.

After the trigger was pulled, the District Attorney's Office was working with Birmingham Police to solve the Ensley mass slaying.

"The people in Ensley want to know what happened. They want to know if they're safe," said District Attorney Brandon Falls.

That's an answer Brandon Falls wants to provide now.

"When I started in the D.A.'s office, it took 3,4, sometimes 5 years to take a case to trial. We don't want to go back to that. We routinely had cases when we couldn't find witnesses," he recalled.

Falls fears his department could face that situation again. If his department is cut 20 percent as the governor proposes, he would be forced to lay off employees. That would snowball into court delays and judges letting more defendants out on bond.

"There's only so many spaces in jail. The longer the time goes, the more defendants are walking the streets," said Falls.

That isn't the governor's intent.

"The governor had to prioritize. When you have limited funds, your priorities are public safety," said Marquita Davis, Alabama Director of Finance.

All state departments were originally told to submit proposals detailing what would happen if every department was cut by 25 percent.

"We would have to release 11 thousand prisoners. We were looking at multiple lawsuits due to the inability to provide professionals to handle child abuse an neglect. We were looking at taking 141 million dollar of federal match money out of Alabama," explained Davis.

While the proposed general fund budget doesn't touch jails or state troopers, all other departments would take a ten to 24 percent cut, including courts. But the governor plans on increasing the court budget through appropriations and unearmarking.

The Department of Human Resources and the Department of Labor will combine with other agencies to prevent a duplication of services and save money on utilities and rent.

Davis says there would be no furloughs but realizes layoffs could happen.

"I'm sure there will be. But what we aren't saying is - you have to lay these people off," said Davis.

But if the governor's proposed budget is approved, it's a decision some department heads will have to make.

"We don't have inventory. We don't have trucks, cars. We have people," said Falls.

Under the proposed budgets, there are a transfer of funds. Medicaid money from the general fund would be moved to the education budget to cover child related costs, like day care programs. Not all of the use tax will go to schools. Extra money will be split between the two budgets.

In the education budget, the governor also proposes eliminating nearly 14 hundred positions. Most of them are teachers. It's not considered a layoff because 15 hundred positions are usually lost to attrition each year.

Funding for two year colleges would be cut by two percent and universities by four. 

These are just proposals and must be approved by the legislature.