By RONNIE ELLIS
Ed Monahan is “extremely pleased,” but the state’s top public defender may also feel a bit like some of his agency’s clients – it may be more reprieve than pardon.
The state Department of Public Advocacy – which provides legal representation to those who cannot afford it – was set to run out of money next month. Although both the state Senate and House passed bills containing the funding, neither passed the other chamber’s bill before they went home.
Each would have provided a similar amount for local county and commonwealth attorneys’ budgets for next year, but that’s gone, too. Those offices are also undergoing budget cuts, including staff layoffs and furloughs.
On Thursday, Gov. Steve Beshear announced he’d found $2 million for DPA and come up with ways to hold down costs through the end of the year. It does not affect prosecutors’ funding. Courts have repeatedly ruled the state must provide counsel for indigent defendants and public advocates’ case loads are as high as 550 cases per attorney in some field offices.
“We acknowledge that this is a short-term fix to a broader funding problem,” Beshear said in a press release. “However, the services provided by this agency are too important to allow them to be discontinued for the remainder of this fiscal year. The entire judicial system would be jeopardized.”
Teresa Whitaker, DPA directing attorney in the Somerset office, was thrilled.
“All the people in the Somerset office are so grateful,” said Whitaker. Her office is down two attorney positions as it is and the others average more than 550 cases. “People were worried about losing their jobs but most of all they were saying what will happen to our clients who are in jail when they don’t have an attorney. We’re just very grateful for the governor actually trying to help us.”
Mike Foster, the Christian County attorney who is president of the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) and a member of the Prosecutors’ Advisory Council, said prosecutors have already implemented more than $5 million in budget cuts this year. In addition to layoffs and furloughs, some local prosecutors have actually transmitted locally generated fees to the state Treasury as part of the money they had to send back to Frankfort when their budgets were cut 4 percent in the middle of the year.
The $2 million for DPA comes from the State Salary and Compensation Fund. That is a pool of funds appropriated to the Personnel Cabinet over which the state Budget Director has discretion to distribute to state agencies “for increased costs associated with higher employer contribution rates for retirement,” according to Beshear’s Communications Director Jay Blanton.
Monahan said his office will hold down costs through the end of the year by delaying rent payments on some district offices and payment of other bills for such things as computer services and automobile fleet use provided by other state agencies. In total, DPA will delay payment of about $1.15 million but the bills will have to be paid on July 1.
“I’ll start out with a $1.15 million shortfall next year and the situation will only be exacerbated,” Monahan said. But he remains hopeful lawmakers and the governor will find a long-term solution.
He said a “significant portion” of those funds were in excess of the what was required for that purpose and could be used to help balance DPA’s budget.
“The fact the $4.7 million passed both houses and the governor committed to helping us are indications they’re serious about helping us in the long-term,” Monahan said.
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.
