Brief(1)
H.B. 2471 would establish the office of district attorney in the 27th Judicial District-Reno County, upon the effective date of the bill-July 1, 1999. The current county attorney shall become district attorney. The district attorney shall be elected commencing with the general election in the year 2000. The district attorney is declared to be an executive officer of the judicial district. The tax levied for the office of district attorney is made exempt from the tax lid.
Background
The bill was supported by the Reno County Attorney. He noted that he had long endorsed the concept of a statewide district attorney system to guarantee professional, career prosecutors. Over the last 15 years, he noted that he had employed 14 assistant county attorneys. He said prosecution should not be a training ground for new attorneys to gain a few years of experience before moving on to the private practice of law. Reno County is a single county judicial district. With the exception of Cowley County, Reno County is the only single county judicial district that is not a district attorney. Reno County ranks consistently at the very bottom of counties in the State of Kansas in per capita spending for prosecution. The 1999 budget for the office is $324,248. The 1999 budgets for Saline, Finney, and Riley counties are, respectively, $527,589, $606,384, and $598,282.
The fiscal note states that there would be an increase in costs for Reno County but the exact impact is not known.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.