(Photo from MS Attorney General on Facebook)
- The AG’s office is requesting less funding for the next fiscal year but wants the Legislature to provide salary increases to help retain and attract staff.
For the second consecutive year, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office has requested less funding than the prior year, asking lawmakers only for an increase in salaries given the loss of attorneys to higher-paying jobs.
During testimony Tuesday before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Deputy Attorney General Doug Miracle requested nearly $48.5 million in funding for Fiscal Year 2027, which includes $35.3 million in General Funds. This represents a decrease of more than $915,000 from FY 2026.
The salary line of the budget showed an increase of approximately $1.6 million for merit-based salary increases. Miracle told the subcommittee.
At present, only 31 of the scores of attorneys on staff are paid at or above the Mississippi State Personnel Board’s recommended market rates, and they are primarily entry-level, not experienced or supervisory, attorneys, he said. Miracle added that last year the office lost 18 lawyers to other employers. An attorney with up to five years of experience is salary capped at $120,080.
“Only 14 of the attorneys in this office now make that or more – and they are the attorneys that occupy our highest levels, supervising whole divisions and complex litigation,” Miracle said. “It is difficult to recruit and retain high-quality professionals to the Attorney General’s Office when they can achieve a public service mission elsewhere for a higher salary.”
He explained to the subcommittee that both civil and criminal attorneys are leaving for private firms and even for other state agencies and district attorneys’ offices, where they are enticed with higher pay.
“We’re losing very skilled attorneys at the Attorney General’s Office to other state agencies. The competition we are primarily worried about is not losing them to private practice,” Miracle said.
He continued by saying that after a few years at the Attorney General’s Office, some attorneys become so skilled at representing state agencies that they leave for a higher state salary or promotion.
The highest salary at the Attorney General’s Office caps off at $150,000, Miracle said.
The salary line increase also includes an additional attorney and two law enforcement officers, he said. The additional staff request is the result of a case load increase.
Miracle said the increase in criminal caseload is largely due to new responsibilities in the Capitol Complex Improvement District as well as the steady influx of officer-involved shootings at a statewide level and a marked increase in cyber-facilitated crimes. These cases are investigated by the Attorney General’s office directly. In addition, the officer works with local law enforcement in need of technical and forensic investigative expertise.
In 2025, the office’s criminal appellate attorneys filed 545 direct appeals, federal habeas cases, and death penalty cases. Prosecutors had a total of 63 indictments and 91 convictions. Additionally, prosecutors had 276 convictions at the new Capitol Complex Improvement District (CCID) Court, he said, to buttress the increased staffing request.
The budget also includes $2.5 million in special funds spending authority for the Victims of Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation Fund.
These state agency budget requests will be made to lawmakers and then used to develop the FY 2027 budget in the weeks ahead.
