HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane got a warm reception Tuesday from the Senate Appropriations Committee, even though she was asking for a $12 million boost in funding for her office.

Kane, a Democrat elected as the state’s chief legal officer less than two years ago, said the nearly 14 percent increase primarily would cover negotiated salaries and benefits for the more than 700 employees and the hiring of 16 additional drug agents.

Republican Gov. Tom Corbett proposes flat-funding the office at $87 million, but Kane says that wouldn’t keep up with costs and her aides said it would eliminate 108 positions.

Committee members quizzed Kane about topics that included her opposition to legalizing marijuana, the success of an ongoing crackdown in Hazleton by her office’s mobile street crimes unit and stepped-up efforts to combat illegal drug use and child sex abuse.

At the end of the two-hour hearing, committee Chairman Jake Corman told Kane that crime affects nearly every community and said the panel would work to fulfill her request.

Sen. John Gardner asked Kane about the status of her year-old internal investigation of the criminal investigation that resulted in Jerry Sandusky’s 2012 conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse and his 30- to 60-year prison sentence.

Kane vowed during her election campaign to investigate why the attorney general’s investigation of Sandusky, which began under then-Attorney General Corbett, took nearly three years. Gardner, R-Columbia, asked Kane when she expects her investigation to be completed.

“Before October?” he asked.

“I certainly hope so,” she replied.