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A DNA swabbing program that has helped solve cold cases in Hawaii and put murderers and rapists in prison is set to lose more than half its funding next year.

Meanwhile, a lack of legal resources could hamstring the effort to hold Matson financially accountable for the devastating molasses spill last year in Honolulu Harbor.

And Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative — a plan to save the state money in part by incarcerating fewer non-violent criminals — may be dismantled.

Hawaii Attorney General David Louie asked the Legislature in December to give his office an extra $5.3 million for fiscal 2015, which starts July 1. But the latest draft of the budget, which lawmakers will finalize over the next few weeks, only adds $1.5 million.

It’s not a huge difference considering that the department’s overall budget for this year is $73 million, $25 million of which comes from the general fund. But Louie said that the extra $3.8 million could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars over the long haul while making Hawaii a safer place.

The House and Senate have different spending priorities though. Budget negotiators will have to resolve that before the legislative session ends May 1.

The Senate restored funding to some key areas that the House had cut from the budget draft it passed last month, but there are still some major the AG’s office is hoping to plug.

DNA Swabbing

Eight years ago, Hawaii took advantage of federal funding to create a DNA unit in the AG’s investigative division. Since then, six people have been working full-time to obtain DNA samples from thousands of convicted felons who are no longer in custody or under the supervision of any government agency as would be the case if under parole.

The federal funding has run out, however, and special funds that have been used to prop up the program will soon be depleted, Louie said.

The AG’s office wants the Legislature to preserve the unit by closing the shortfall with general funds. But the latest version of the budget cuts three and a half of the six positions.

Louie said this won’t necessarily cripple the program, but would certainly hamper the effort — particularly on the neighbor islands.

The DNA unit is the only crew actively seeking out felons for swabbing. The team has collected 6,748 samples to date, of which 678 were gathered on the neighbor islands.

In his testimony last month to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Sen. David Ige, Louie highlighted a few of the successes the state’s DNA program has had:

In June 2010, a DNA sample was obtained from Gerald Austin that matched the DNA sample from a 1989 cold case involving the rape and murder of Edith Skinner. Mr. Austin was subsequently found guilty and convicted of murder. In April 2009, Darnell Griffin, a convicted killer on parole, was convicted of the 1999 strangulation murder of a 20-year-old woman on Oahu after a DNA sample that he provided matched DNA evidence found on the victim’s body. In 2008, Richard Morris, Jr., was charged with a 1987 California murder. His arrest was credited to a DNA match following a 2005 DUI arrest in Hawaii. In 2009, Mark Heath was convicted of a 2007 rape in Waikiki, after providing a DNA sample in connection with a prior conviction for the sexual assault of a University of Hawaii student.

More than 21,600 convicted felons remain unswabbed and their whereabouts are not readily available in any database, Louie said, adding that fully staffing the DNA unit is only necessary until the backlog is cleared.

Ige underscored that there is money for some positions in the base budget. He said when lawmakers looked at this item, the question wasn’t whether they support what the DNA unit is doing but whether they can afford to devote enough additional resources to it.

Major Litigation

Of all the cases the Attorney General’s office handles each year, several are routinely flagged as “major litigation” cases that expose the state to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Louie started a pilot project 18 months ago in which a task force of sorts was put in charge of monitoring the caseload, identifying major litigation cases and managing them closely with the deputy attorneys general who have expertise in the subject matter.

The House denied the AG’s request for $377,000 to make the five-member unit permanent, but the Senate restored $357,000. Over the next few weeks, lawmakers will decide just how much money to put toward it.

“Under prior administrations there was no centralized coordinating unit,” Louie said. “The result was a lack of understanding, with the potential for tens of millions of dollars in damages … Over the next 18 months, due to several major litigation cases, this unit is even more essential.”

Louie identified a few pending cases that could be costly, especially if his office drops the ball on any one of them because he doesn’t have a deputy or two keeping tabs.

In the , which is highly technical and complex, the state could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in health benefits owed to retirees.

In the Matson case, Hawaii is trying to hold the shipping company financially accountable for the molasses spill in 2013 that killed more than 25,000 fish and acres of coral.

The Kalima case involves 2,721 residents who are suing the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for mismanaging resources. The state, which was found liable for three breaches of trust in 2009, expects to defend itself over the next 18 months against claims for damages.

Last year, Hawaii taxpayers forked over against the state, including a $15 million settlement with substitute teachers.

have risen to $1.2 million.

Ige said the Senate agreed with the AG’s office that some cases could cost the state a lot more than others. He said he supports the notion of making an investment to defend the state better in those cases by establishing a division that oversees them.

Apart from the money for the major litigation unit, there is a request about funding to bring in expert witnesses and hire outside legal counsel for many of those same big lawsuits, including the Matson case.

Lawmakers last week approved a for the AG’s litigation fund, which will help shore up resources this year.

The office wants $1.5 million for next year, but the latest budget draft only includes $500,000. The House draft didn’t put any money in the fund.

Ige noted that the AG’s request is based on a best guess of what the office thinks will be needed for major litigation expenses in 2015. He recognized though that it could very well mean Louie will be back before lawmakers next year asking for another emergency appropriation.

Justice Reinvestment Initiative

The latest version of the budget cuts all of the AG’s requested funding — almost $800,000 — for county victim services, which involve counseling and safety assessments on Maui, Kauai, the Big Island and Oahu.

On the Garden Isle, for instance, one of the positions that could be cut is a victim counselor who is fluent in Ilocano and culturally sensitive to victims in that community, Louie said.

“The Fifth Circuit Court relies on the counselor to locate victims so that restitution payments can be paid, and the counselor assists victims in preparing restitution requests for sentencing hearings,” he told senators last month.

Over the past six months, the counselor has provided 279 services to victims, 38 services to family members and 94 services to witnesses, according to the AG’s office.

The county victim services program is part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, a long-term plan that aims to reduce the amount Hawaii spends to incarcerate criminals while improving public safety.

The Abercrombie administration launched the initiative in 2011 with support from the Legislature, the AG’s office, Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald and others, but Louie said the program could be dismantled if funding for county victim services is lost.

“We’re trying to get lower risk, nonviolent offenders out of the prisons and into the communities,” Louie said. “It’s extraordinarily expensive to house them in prisons.”

The trick, however, is that the state can’t just open the doors and let them out. It takes a lot of money for parole officers, counseling and outside services to safely reintegrate them, he said, but over the long haul it is expected to save millions of dollars.

Budget Negotiations

The latest draft of the budget, produced by the Senate, provides $6.04 billion in general funds for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and $6.12 billion for next year.

The Senate shaved $100 million off the House version of the budget, which had cut roughly $53 million from the governor’s initial request.

The Senate’s sole Republican, Sam Slom, doesn’t think either chamber’s revisions went far enough. He Friday that called for an additional $480 million in cuts to general-fund spending.

The state Council on Revenues’ latest revenue-growth forecast has motivated the cuts. The council determined in March that there would be no growth in 2014 and only 5.5 percent in 2015. This translates to the state receiving nearly half a billion dollars less than it expected this year and next.

With that in mind, Ige said he and his counterpart in the House, Finance Chair Sylvia Luke, made a decision to pass their respective drafts of the budget as quickly as possible so budget negotiators from both chambers could have more time to work on the final version.

“We knew there’d be quite a range of differences so we’re planning to spend more time in conference,” Ige said.

Discussions have already begun about broad parameters for the budget and setting some target numbers, he said, adding that conference committee meetings will likely start next week.

Louie understands that the Legislature must balance all of the requests for money coming from all departments and he is realistic about the chances that his office will get everything it wants.

“They have lots of asks from lots of people and we appreciate that,” he said.

• Contact Nathan Eagle via email at neagle@civilbeat.com or Twitter at .