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PHOENIX — A last-minute deal to balance the state budget could force local police to choose between laying off workers or not pursuing certain crimes.

The budget, which Gov. Janet Napolitano helped craft, cuts the state allocation for the Department of Public Safety crime lab by more than half. It directs the agency to make up the loss by billing police, fire and sheriff's departments and medical examiner's offices a total of $7.8 million for lab work that, until now, was done for free.

Because the budget deal was not made public until late June, it also came after most cities and counties already had adopted their own budgets, which did not anticipate a new bill from DPS.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said Wednesday that the move goes back on what essentially was a promise made when the crime lab was set up in the first place, that the lab would provide services to police agencies throughout the state. "I think it's a little outrageous," said Dever, whose department could have to pay $137,000 this year under a DPS plan.

He said the move could hamper crime-fighting efforts because it could force law enforcement agencies to "kind of cherry-pick which cases they're going to send up to the lab for analysis."

A spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department said the department wasn't familiar with the plan, and was not in a position to comment. The sheriff would owe more than $580,000 under a proposed DPS schedule for allocating the cost.

Even the Tucson Police Department, which has its own crime lab, will be hit to the tune of about $91,000 because it sends blood and urine samples to the DPS lab for drug analysis. The department is also unable to analyze tire and shoe impressions, determine the authenticity of documents or do handwriting analysis, according to Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a department spokesman.

"Eventually what we would like to see happen is our department having someone to do those things for us, but in the meantime this is something we will have to deal with," Pacheco said. "This is a tough situation but we are not going to stop conducting thorough investigations for the sake of saving money. We will do what we have to do."

The Oro Valley Police Department will continue to go about business as usual should the budget be approved with the provision, according to Liz Wright, a Department spokeswoman.