Idaho Legislature's budget committee sets budget for new state office of public defender

Yahoo

24-03-2025

The door to the JFAC committee room at the Idaho State Capitol building is pictured on Jan. 6, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
The Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee set the budget for the new Idaho Public Defender's Office on Monday.
But after current and former public defenders expressed concern last fall over the transition to the new statewide public defense system, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, cut about $5 million in funding from Gov. Brad Little's budget request on Monday.
JFAC, is a powerful legislative committee that sets every budget for every state agency and department.
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Little sought almost $88.6 million in total funding for the public defender's office's fiscal year 2026 budget enhancements, and JFAC voted to provide $83.2 million. The office itself requested even less, asking for $69.8 million.
One of the differences is that JFAC did not approve a cash transfer that Little requested.
JFAC did vote to approve almost $1.3 million in new funding for additional transcription costs after the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in December that the Idaho Public Defender's Office is required to cover the cost of appeal transcripts for indigent defendants, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
In October, Idaho transitioned from paying counties for public defense to a new state-run public defense system, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. The move followed a 2015 lawsuit ACLU of Idaho filed that alleged Idaho's public defense system violated low income people's Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
The state public defender is appointed by the governor, and the Idaho Public Defender's Office is responsible for providing qualified attorneys to provide public defense to indigent Idahoans. In October 2023, Little appointed Eric Fredericksen as state public defender.
In October 2024, several current and former public defenders told the Sun the transition of combining 44 county systems to one statewide system was rocky and troublesome. The Sun reported there was a series of resignations among the public defenders, and the Sun reported that, for a time between September and October, public defenders could not be contacted by their clients in jail as the phone system between the old and new systems was switched.
One of the differences between the budget JFAC passed and Little's recommendation had to do with personnel costs. Little recommended providing funding to increase the rate for contracted attorneys from $100 per hour to $150 per hour. JFAC approved an increase to $125 per hour.
On Monday, Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, said the public defense system lost a lot of contract attorneys when the state took over the system. Manwaring said some rural counties have always been short on attorneys. But Manwaring also said more experienced attorneys weren't willing to do the work for the rate of $100 per hour.
'There's been a lot of discussion on this contract rate and how we get contract attorneys back to work and back taking these cases,' Manwaring said. 'We have a lot of cases where we need to get attorneys assigned and working.'
Manwaring said the state should study whether it would save more money by having some of the work performed as contract services or by having them be state employees.
In addition to the budget requests, the Idaho Legislature is also considering a new policy bill introduced Thursday, Senate Bill 1181, which supporters said seeks to address the transition from the county to the statewide public defense system.
Rep. Steven Miller, R- Fairfield, said he has heard many concerns about the transition to the new statewide system.
'There were a number of hearings where there was a lack of a defender,' Miller said Monday. 'There wasn't a smooth transition from the counties to the public defender's office. There was a real lack of communication with the institutional counties in regards to the attorneys, the staff, what they were going to get paid and, to a good extent, where they were going to be placed.'
But Miller voted against a supplemental budget request and the fiscal year 2026 budget enhancements for the Idaho Public Defender's Office on Monday. Miller said he was frustrated the state is being asked to approve additional spending 'to try to get the same job done.'
'My difficulty with it is it's not just money that we're dealing with here and I'm not sure, in my mind, that just throwing more money at it is going to fix it,' Miller said.
The budgets for the Idaho Public Defender's Office still must pass the Idaho House of Representatives and Idaho Senate and not be vetoed by Little.
So far, multiple unfinished fiscal year 2026 state budgets have prevented the Idaho Legislature from adjourning the annual legislative session for the year. On Monday, JFAC co-chairs said they were closing in on finishing setting the 2026 budget.
JFAC is scheduled to reconvene at 8 a.m. Tuesday to resume setting budgets.
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