Latest news with #HouseBill190
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Public defenders look back on 2025 legislative session
Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur. (Photo courtesy of the Law Offices of the Public Defender) Philip Larragoite, chief of staff for the New Mexico Legislature's Senate Judiciary Committee, says his measure of a legislative session's success isn't so much the bills lawmakers passed but, rather, the ones they did not. 'You can't hear 'em all, and the Judiciary Committee in the Senate was pretty rigorous about what it hears and what it acts on,' Larragoite told the state Public Defender Commission on Friday during its regular meeting in Albuquerque — its first since the session ended on March 22. 'Our Constitution is hard-wired — it's supposed to be hard to adopt legislation, hard to pass bills.' The commission oversees the Law Offices of the Public Defender, the independent state agency that employs public defenders who represent anyone charged with a crime in New Mexico. Larragoite, who is also LOPD's deputy chief of policy and statewide offices, noted that he has participated in more than 70 legislative sessions, the earliest in 1961 as a page for Jack Campbell, who was House Speaker at the time. Appellate Defender Kim Chavez Cook, who also works as LOPD's policy advocate during legislation sessions, agreed that it is important to note the bills that did not pass. She highlighted two examples of bills that were 'priorities for us to stop': House Bill 204, a proposal that comes up every year to try to remove defense pre-trial interviews from certain cases; and House Bill 190, which would have given alleged victims in criminal cases the right to be a litigant in those cases. Chavez Cook said LOPD had 'serious due process concerns' with HB204, and put a lot of time and energy into discussions about it. HB190 raised 'some serious separation of powers and other related concerns,' she said. Neither bill received a single vote in committee this year. 'We'll keep doing that year after year, many of these things will come back again,' Chavez Cook said. Policy aside, Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur told the Commission on Friday he was disappointed by the budget outcomes. During the recent session, his agency asked lawmakers for a nearly 13% increase in its annual budget but only received a 4.1% increase. Lawmakers did not give LOPD any money for additional full-time staff positions, Baur said, but they did give the agency $450,000 to spend over the next two years for recruitment and retention. Hundreds of additional public defenders would be needed to properly handle all of the cases coming through the state's criminal legal system, and there is a longstanding disparity of resources between public defenders and their opponents in court, district attorneys. The American Bar Association found in 2022 that New Mexico needs at least 602 full-time attorneys and is currently only meeting 33% of clients who need a legal defense. Baur said many lawmakers were concerned about the economy in the U.S. and the state as they considered the budget, and are probably even more concerned about it now than they were during the session. In the last four years, he said, lawmakers have funded 54 new staff positions. LOPD has an overall vacancy rate of 11%, better than most state agencies, he said. That rate is higher for attorney positions, at 16.8%, he said. Many public defenders aren't actually full-time staff employed by LOPD, but are contractors who are paid a flat fee for taking on cases rather than an hourly rate. For example, when a contractor takes on a first-degree murder case, the state pays them a base rate of $5,400. For the whole case. That means, on average, that attorney is making $13.81 per hour representing their client, according to the ABA's study. In some jurisdictions, paying a public defender a flat fee is outlawed, said Commissioner Jacqueline Flores, a former Second Judicial District Court judge. Baur said lawmakers didn't give LOPD money to launch a pilot project for paying contract attorneys an hourly rate. But he said he's determined to still try to do it by 'rearranging money' within the agency's existing budget. 'Those of you that know the budget process know that you never get what you ask for,' Baur said. 'But if you don't ask for it, then you don't get it.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pa. House committee advances bill on intermediate unit facility ownership
The Capitol building in Harrisburg on July 6, 2024 (Capital-Star photo by Ian Karbal) The Pennsylvania House Education Committee approved a bipartisan piece of legislation that allows intermediate units to own land and buildings for instructional use. There are 29 intermediate units in Pennsylvania, which are regional educational service agencies created by the General Assembly that offer special education, workforce development, online learning, curriculum development and a range of other services. The units are allowed to own office space and warehouse facilities, but instructional space must be leased. That limitation does not exist for area career and technical schools or charter schools, a legislative memo says. That arrangement burdens 'IUs with rental costs that sometimes greatly exceed what it would cost the IU to purchase and own the facility themselves,' per the memo, as well as preventing 'IUs from providing facilities that are tailored for the needs of the students they serve.' House Bill 201, sponsored by state Reps. Joe Ciresi (D-Montgomery) and Kristin Marcell (R-Bucks), allows IUs to purchase and own land and buildings for instructional use. Ciresi, who served at the IU in Montgomery County when he was a school board member, argued that the legislation is 'definitely a cost saver,' during the voting meeting on Monday. Marcell, who was a school board member in Bucks County, noted that several IUs in the suburban county north of Philadelphia have been limited to leasing several facilities, including those that serve early childhood programs. 'The constraints of leasing prevent the IU from operating as efficiently as possible and from fully customizing these spaces to meet students' unique needs,' Marcell said. PAIU_Map_by_SD The legislation was approved by a 20-6 vote, with every Democrat voting to support the legislation, while Republicans were split 6-6. State Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), the minority chair of the House Education Committee, supported the legislation because he thinks it's important that local control also comes with local financial responsibility. 'Those are the individuals that are closest to the community,' Cutler said. 'They understand their needs, they understand the financial impact, and ultimately, I trust them to make that best decision.' State Rep. Milou Mackenzie (R-Lehigh) was one of six Republicans who voted against the bill. 'I think now is not the time to go ahead and give permission to buy more real estate that ultimately the taxpayers are going to be responsible for paying and keeping up and maintaining,' Mackenzie said. 'It's just like in your own life if you can't afford to maintain your primary residence, you should not be going out and buying additional real estate.' The committee also advanced House Bill 190 by state Rep. Jason Ortitay (R-Allegheny), which would add a new section to the School Code to require the Departments of Education and Health to develop educational information and make recommendations for eating disorder awareness. An amendment to the bill proposed by state Rep. Gina Curry (D-Delaware) lists the Department of Health as the lead agency rather than the Department of Education. The vote was 18-8 vote. In April 2023, legislation addressing eating disorder awareness in schools was approved by a 158-43 vote. It was last referred to the Senate Education committee in the previous session, but did not receive a vote.
