The job of Warren County prosecuting attorney could become full time at more than twice the pay if a bill passed by the Mississippi Legislature gets approval from Gov. Haley Barbour.

Co-authored by Rep. Alex Monsour, R-Vicksburg, House Bill 1326, which passed the Senate Wednesday, would allow supervisors to make the change. Indications were that the Warren County board favors doing so for Ricky Johnson, re-elected to the post in 2007.

The bill contains a formula for pay based on county population, with special provisions for individual counties.

These include Warren County, whose elected prosecuting attorney could earn a full-time salary equal to 90 percent that of the county court judge — a position currently paying $103,170. A salary equal to 90 percent of that would be $92,853.

Johnson currently draws a supervisor’s salary of $44,811.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said the ability to employ the county prosecutor full time has been a goal of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors for several years as well as the board here, which asked for the legislation.

“It was a board request, but it was also an MAS request,” McDonald said. “Several other counties have the same problem, a backlog of cases.”

McDonald said similar bills have been proposed in preceding years, but none has been successful.

Both McDonald and John Smith, county administrator, said the job here, which involves prosecuting misdemeanors and juvenile cases, should be full time.

“He’s in court parttime, but he’s preparing for cases all week long,” Smith said.

“It’s a full-time job. It’s not a part-time job. It needs to be paid as a full-time job,” McDonald said.

Johnson is also a defendant with board members and others in civil litigation stemming from efforts to enforce the county’s floodplain ordinance and subdivision owners against a group of Eagle Lake area landowners.

Barbour’s spokesman, Pete Smith, said the bill had not reached the governor’s desk Wednesday, but that Barbour will read and review it before making a decision.

As a way to partially fund prosecutors’ salaries, the bill would impose a $3 tax upon every convicted defendant, which would be paid to the county general fund.