A key Senate committee voted Tuesday to slash the infusion of funding that Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed to give the cash-strapped public defender system this year.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council has warned it may have to furlough employees if it does not get the money it needs.

Perdue had recommended — and the House approved — $3.6 million to help the council make it through the end of the fiscal year, June 30. But the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $513,125. A handful of House and Senate members will be appointed to try to reach a compromise.

After the vote, Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome) said the council will have enough money to last through June. He cited more than $3 million in funds he said the council can use.

But council officials say that money already is obligated. It includes an $18,500 federal grant that must be spent on juvenile-offender reports, $1.4 million in administrative fees that must be spent on defenders hired by counties to supplement the state program, and $1.58 million from interest-bearing accounts run by clerks and sheriffs that is already being used in this year's budget.

When asked about the possibility of defender furloughs, Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson said, "The Senate believes very strongly that that is an exaggeration."

House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) said the cutbacks would be a huge blow for capital prosecutions across the state. "We have a substantial number of capital cases waiting in Georgia," he said. "This money was to get those trials going."

The Legislature established the state's public defender system in 2003. Lawmakers set up the system of regional public defender offices to replace uneven, county-run programs.

The council has said it needs emergency funds to pay for hundreds of "conflict" cases across the state: cases with multiple defendants, in which a public defender can represent only one defendant and private attorneys paid by the hour represent co-defendants.

The council said the money also will help pay for the defense in capital cases. A number of cases, such as the Brian Nichols courthouse shooting case in Fulton County, have stalled because of a lack of funds to pay lawyers and expert witnesses.

Council chairman Wilson DuBose expressed disappointment over the Senate committee's vote but said he remained hopeful the council would ultimately receive the entire amount.

"The council will obviously do everything within its power to avoid furloughs, but our best indication at this time is that some degree of furloughs will be necessary if sufficient supplemental funding is not received," DuBose said.

Staff writers Andrea Jones and James Salzer contributed to this article.