AG Budget Up 57 Percent; Crime Up 26 Percent; Where’s The ROI?
NEW YORK – There has been a sharply negative return on investment for the New York State Attorney General’s Office under progressive AG Letitia James, with the budget surging 57% since 2019 when Ms. James first took office, and crime skyrocketing 26% during that time, crime-fighting New York State attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy today announced.
“The Attorney General’s Office keeps getting a raise even though it is failing New Yorkers. James has presided over a 26 percent increase in crime, a 63 percent increase in drug deaths, and a 38 percent increase in homelessness,” Ms. Komatireddy said. “Why are New York taxpayers being forced to pay more for demonstrated failure?”
Komatireddy called for a freeze of the Attorney General’s budget: “The Attorney General’s Office does not need a raise, it needs new leadership. When I’m Attorney General, I’ll do more with less.”
When Ms. James took office in January 2019, the Department of Law carried an All Funds appropriation of $263.8 million. The FY 2027 Executive Budget recommends $413.1 million — an increase of $149.3 million, or approximately 57 percent, over her tenure. The office’s headcount has grown from 1,839 full-time employees to more than 2,300.
“The question every taxpayer has a right to ask is simple,” Ms. Komatireddy said: “What did we get for that investment? The answer, measured in the safety of New York families, is deeply disappointing.”
The data from Ms. James’s own state government tells the story. According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, reported Index crimes hit a recent historic low of 337,131 in 2019, the year Ms. James assumed office. By 2024, the last year reported by the state, that figure had climbed to 425,334, a 26 percent increase, returning New York to crime levels last recorded in 2013.
Hate crimes, assaults, car theft, burglary, robbery — category after category — swelled during Ms. James’s watch.
Homelessness, a driver of street crime and subway disorder, has increased 38 percent over the same period, Ms. Komatireddy noted.
Ms. Komatireddy, a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York who prosecuted leaders of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Sinaloa cartel, argued that the arithmetic of the James tenure represents a fundamental failure.
“Ms. James spends a lot of money and holds a lot of news conferences, but she has failed to use the powers of the Attorney General’s Office to keep our communities safe,” Ms. Komatireddy continued. “The Attorney General of New York has extraordinary tools to prosecute crime and root out fraud — tools grossly underutilized while the Office’s budget has ballooned and New Yorkers have experienced increasing lawlessness.”
“The Attorney General of New York is not a political action committee with a law license,” Ms. Komatireddy said. “If I am elected, every dollar appropriated to that office will be deployed in service of one mission: protecting the people of New York. That means going after repeat offenders, housing the homeless, and stopping the scams. Not chasing political headlines. New Yorkers are tired of paying more and getting less. That ends in November.”
Ms. Komatireddy has pledged to run a professional and apolitical Office of the Attorney General that focuses on reducing crime, homelessness, and fraud instead of politics.