A well functioning justice system plays a very important role in our society: holding wrongdoers accountable, safeguarding the rights of residents, aiding crime victims, and deterring crime by making it clear criminal activity will be punished. Prosecutors form a pillar of the justice system, determining when evidence is convincing enough to pursue charges, identifying what charges should be pursued, making the case in court, and proposing suitable punishments.
In Oregon, conducting prosecutions is the responsibility of District Attorneys (DAs), chosen by voters in each of Oregon’s 36 counties. DAs are state employees, and the state pays their salaries. However, effective prosecution involves many other costs such as support staff, office space, computers, software, data, hosting, etc., and the state doesn’t provide funding for any of those things. While counties aren’t required to provide any funding to support prosecution, all Oregon counties voluntarily do so despite increasingly constrained county revenues. For many counties, maintaining this commitment brings significant sacrifice, but counties recognize how essential prosecution is, and the justice system couldn’t work without counties stepping up to help.
Historically, the state provided a much greater share of the funding of the total costs associated with prosecution, covering almost one fifth of these costs in 1975. The portion covered by the state has dwindled since then. Counties now bear more than 90 percent of these costs. It has now been more than 15 years since the Legislature increased state investments in support of the work of prosecutors. In 2007, the Legislature began providing some funding for deputy district attorney salaries – only to withdraw that support two years later.
The state imposes a two-tiered system for DA salaries, providing about $21,000 more to DAs serving bigger counties (greater than 100,000 in population). While DAs in smaller counties may have a smaller caseload, the lower salary potential makes DA positions in smaller counties less attractive. Smaller counties have faced growing challenges recruiting qualified candidates for DA positions, especially those located far away from Oregon’s population centers.
Every legislative session for many years now, the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) has asked the Legislature to commit additional resources to supporting the work of prosecutors. This year, AOC’s Legislative Committee identified the issue as a top priority for its lobbying efforts in the 2023 Legislative Session:
“Increase state investments in district attorney salaries and address the widening pay gap between elected district attorneys.”
AOC’s legislative team looks forward to advocating vigorously for progress on this issue next year.
Contributed by: Michael Burdick | Legislative Affairs Manager