RICHMOND — A bill that would install a public defender in every judicial jurisdiction in the commonwealth but also expand the responsibility of state prosecutors advanced in a Senate committee this week. But the next hurdle will be finding the money to pay for it.

The Senate Courts and Justice Committee voted Wednesday to advance the legislation proposed by Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat representing Bath. But because the initiative, dubbed the Virginia Access to Justice Act, is estimated to cost $250 million, the Senate Finance Committee must also weigh in.

“This is a very expensive proposal,” Deeds acknowledged during the committee meeting. “I understand that its implementation may be put off a little while because we don’t have people to do it right now.”

If passed, the legislation would also establish a public defender’s office at the appellate level and require commonwealth’s attorneys offices to prosecute some misdemeanors.

“This is an incredibly complex change in the law,” said Nate Green, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Williamsburg and James City County, in an interview. Green spoke on behalf of Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys at Wednesday’s committee hearing.

Current law says that prosecutors “shall” prosecute felonies and “may,” at their discretion, prosecute misdemeanors and all other violations that result in jail time up to one year or a fine of at least $500. The bill as it was initially introduced removed that discretion, mandating that prosecutors prosecute all misdemeanors — a mandate that was a sticking point for Green.

However, during the hearing, Deeds said his intent was not to pass such far-reaching legislation.

“What I’m trying to do is make sure that people have access to justice by having a lawyer when they’ve got a jailable offense, and the people that are victims of assault and batteries or sexual battery or shoplifting or petty theft, that there are prosecutors in those cases where jail is appropriate,” he said.

In response, senators voted to amend the legislation so that it would not include Class 3 misdemeanors. Green said VACA would be willing to support legislation that did something similar but limited the scope of the mandate, assuming localities were willing and able to provide the tools to fund more prosecutors.

“Finding the right balance here, finding the right list of crimes that we should have trained prosecutors for is incredibly valuable,” he said. “It’s just finding that right list.”

Similar legislation is pending in a House committee.

Prosecutors should be required to prosecute some misdemeanors, Green said. Currently, commonwealth’s attorneys offices are funded based on the felonies they prosecute. But there are some serious misdemeanors, like sexual battery, that would warrant being tried by a trained prosecutor. Most commonwealth’s attorneys offices do prosecute those cases, but they aren’t funded by the state.

“The state is telling me, ‘Nate, you don’t have to do that sexual battery case, and we’re not going to give you any funding for anything you choose to do,’” Green said. “We should have prosecutors prosecuting sexual battery, both to protect the victims and also to make sure that the defendant is having his rights protected by a trained prosecutor.”

Green’s concern is that he doesn’t want prosecutors to be required to handle violations outside criminal code, like beekeeping violations or some aviation violations that are punishable by up to a year in jail.

“That would dramatically change what a commonwealth attorney’s office is,” Green said. “It goes from being criminal experts to being criminal experts, regulatory experts, agricultural experts and building experts. Then our offices become just enormous, because they have to do all these things that we haven’t in the past had to do.”

Other prosecutors, like Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi, spoke in favor of the legislation, citing a dearth of public defenders he said was bad for justice and public trust.

“Guilty people should be convicted, and innocent people should be acquitted,” he said. “That’s not how it works in the real world in our courts. There are way too many people who have a lawyer who’s too busy or there’s no lawyer, and way too many people in Virginia who, when the magistrate issues their charges, due to a lack of funding there’s no prosecutor in the room.”

The legislation passed on a 10-5 vote with some bipartisan support.

“Good luck finding the money for that,” said committee Chairman Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax.

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