Public safety was the focus of Massachusetts state budget-writers today at a legislative hearing in western Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell testified in Springfield Tuesday, urging the legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means to approve her request for an almost $71 million budget.
“I submitted a budget that reflects my offices vital needs for FY’24 to meet the challenges that people of Massachusetts face every single day,” Campbell said.
Campbell said the proposed budget includes funding to create new units on reproductive justice, elder justice, gun violence prevention, and police accountability.
“These investments are critical and, frankly, pennies on the dollar of our budget and will help to move Massachusetts forward,” Campbell said.
These new units will not require a lot of new staff, Campbell said. For example, the reproductive justice unit would coordinate work that is already being done by other bureaus and divisions.
The first-term Attorney General said she is trying to erase the “top cop” label that has traditionally been affixed to the office and focus more on such areas as consumer protection, employment practices, and housing.
“Last year alone, we received more than 1,000 complaints involving unsafe and unsanitary conditions, skyrocketing rents, and unlawful evictions,” Campbell said. “We can help mediate these disputes, we can bring enforcement actions, and we can stop illegal practices that force residents out of their homes. But this of course will take time but most importantly a dedicated staff and a skilled team.”
Under questioning, she assured committee members that her office will continue to pursue hate crimes which watchdogs said rose sharply in Massachusetts last year.
“(I) would never hesitate to prosecute these types of cases,” Campbell stated.
State Sen. Adam Gomez of Springfield, who co-chaired Tuesday’s hearing, praised Campbell’s decision to create special units to focus on crimes against the elderly and preventing gun violence.
“One of things during COVID we’ve seen is that gun violence has risen especially here in my district in the city of Springfield,” Gomez said. “I am looking forward to engaging and learning what that gun prevention unit will be doing.”
Campbell said she wants to raise the salaries for attorneys in her office to curb defections to the private sector and to other state agencies that pay more. She said there are currently 576 people employed in the office with about 30 vacant positions.
The Attorney General said typically 80 percent of her office’s budget is supported annually by the monetary judgements and settlements the office secures.
“We pull our own weight in contributing to the general fund 80 cents of every dollar appropriated to us we return and frankly return far more to the constituents we all serve,” Campbell said.
The budget for the attorney general’s office is part of the $55 billion state budget proposal that was filed earlier this year by Gov. Maura Healey.
In Springfield Tuesday, the committee was also scheduled to hear testimony about the proposed budgets for the judiciary, the state’s district attorneys and sheriffs, and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security.
