Stephen Crump, executive director of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, presented the conference’s FY budget outlook and described investments the office requested and the operational rationale for them.

Crump said the conference is not seeking direct changes from the Judiciary Committee because the governor’s budget already included several items the conference requested, including recurring funding for statutory service‑and‑experience step raises and other cost increases. The administration granted 10 assistant‑DA positions and provided recurring rent adjustments and training funds; Crump said the conference continues to press for additional investigator salary adjustments in light of pay competition from state law‑enforcement agencies and for additional VOCA‑funded victim‑witness positions to be transitioned to state positions over time.

The conference reported substantial workload figures (prosecutors handled more than 960,000 cases in the prior fiscal year and trained more than 5,800 people last year) and described retention improvements after recent salary steps. Crump described an 18‑position clerkship/externship expansion plan to recruit new prosecutors and detailed a planned, independent‑methodology workload study to measure complexity by tier across districts and include nonattorney staff workload.

Crump also noted the research division the conference established with prior appropriations; the division produced an immigration‑related report early and is assembling statutory required reports and case‑processing metrics a year ahead of schedule.

The committee approved the conference’s budget package on a roll call (9–0) and thanked conference staff for the detailed presentation.

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(Reporting note: the conference emphasized a mix of recurring salary and nonrecurring operational requests and proposed a data‑driven workload study to justify future staffing.)