There’s no place for payback in legal dispute.

When Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala dropped the bombshell last month that she wouldn’t pursue the death penalty against accused cop killer Markeith Loyd or anyone else during her time in office, we faulted her for blindsiding voters after her election, and for failing to enforce state law.

We stand by that position. Despite our misgivings about chronic problems with capital punishment in Florida — evident in more death-penalty exonerations than any other state — it’s the law. State legislators write the law, and prosecutors take an oath to carry it out.

But like Ayala, we strongly object to retaliatory proposals from legislators to cut funding for her office. The state attorney called such proposals “political posturing.” That’s too kind. We’d also call them reckless, vindictive and counterproductive.

With legislators working on early versions of the next state budget, a House subcommittee proposed cutting $1.3 million from Ayala’s office. Not to be outdone in pandering, a Senate subcommittee proposed cutting $1.46 million. The House would cut 4.4 percent of the office’s $29.4 million budget; the Senate would cut 5 percent.

For legislators who would claim to be tough on crime, it makes no sense to take a bite out of the budget in the office charged with bringing criminals to justice in Florida’s third-most-populous judicial circuit. While Ayala’s policy on capital punishment, if it holds, means her office won’t need to dedicate any resources to pursuing the death penalty, such cases make up less than .01 percent of its caseload, according to a statement from the state attorney. “The other 99.99 percent,” she added, “include non-capital homicides, sexual batteries, sex crimes against children, domestic violence, drug and human trafficking, carjackings, robberies, burglaries, DUI’s thefts, aggravated assaults, batteries and other violent and non-violent crimes.”

Legislators said the money they cut from Ayala’s office would be redirected to a state agency, the Justice Administrative Commission, to pay for costs related to death-penalty cases. This would hardly cushion the blow to criminal prosecutions in Orange and Osceola counties. The commission, according to its website, provides “accounting, budget, financial services, and human resources” services to prosecutors, public defenders and some state legal offices. So legislators would take money from prosecutors to give to paper pushers.

One of the most outspoken legislators in criticizing Ayala’s decision, Republican Scott Plakon of Altamonte Springs, doesn’t even represent anyone in Orange or Osceola counties. He and other critics in the Capitol would use the budget as a weapon to settle political scores instead of fairly distribute funds to provide public safety and other services for the taxpaying public. In their zeal to target one elected official, they would impose a collective punishment on the residents of Orange and Osceola counties, along with the millions of tourists who visit the two counties each year.

Ayala can boast of the backing of more than 100 prominent lawyers as well as progressive groups. But she wasn’t able this week to garner the support that really matters, from a sitting judge who would agree with her that Gov. Rick Scott exceeded his legal authority when he removed her from Loyd’s case and replaced her with another state attorney.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Fred Lauten denied Ayala’s motion to overturn Scott’s action. “The governor is given broad authority to assign another state attorney,” Lauten said.

We hope Ayala, rather than appeal Lauten’s order, will rescind her unilateral moratorium on the death penalty in Orange and Osceola counties. And we also hope legislators will retreat from their irresponsible attack on her budget.