Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen calls proposed cuts to the Department of Justice budget "unprecedented" and writes in an e-mail that the agency was treated inequitably and in a partisan manner by the Dem-run Joint Finance Committee.

Van Hollen detailed the proposed cuts in an e-mail to DOJ staff that went out late Friday afternoon, hours after JFC wrapped up a marathon session to finalize its version of the two-year budget.

Van Hollen wrote the cuts amount to a $13.5 million reduction over the biennium and represent about 10 percent of the agency's budget. That includes a new 5 percent cut affecting most state agency operations that, Van Hollen wrote, was not imposed on departments like Corrections, Military Affairs, DAs, Public Defenders, and Children and Families.

"The fact is that the JFC ignored our public safety mission and services to law enforcement, crime victims and citizens across this state," Van Hollen wrote in the e-mail. "We never imagined that the Justice Department would be treated so inequitably and in such a seemingly partisan manner."

Van Hollen told staff he planned to continue meeting with legislators and Doyle administration officials to "point out the great damage that will be done to public safety in this state if this version of the budget is enacted into law."

He also asked the staff for any input to address the situation.

Read the full e-mail.

UPDATE: Dem Gov. Jim Doyle, a former AG, said he didn't think that Van Hollen was being "picked on" by the JFC.

"I think every department in state government thinks they're being picked on," Doyle said. "There were deep cuts made, but in fact the Department of Justice and quite a number of law enforcement were spared the level of cuts that many other departments have had to take."

John Anderson, a spokesman for JFC Co-chair Mark Miller, said the Monona Dem respectfully disagreed with Van Hollen.

"There is nothing partisan at all about the cuts to agencies contained in AB 75 as reported out of the Joint Committee on Finance," Anderson wrote in an e-mail. "The committee voted to make the Department of Justice accomplish more with fewer dollars, as every other state agency is expected have to do."

-- By JR Ross