More Money Needed for Public Defense in Georgia

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

In what may be its final stand, Georgia’s public defender council voted Monday for emergency spending and a budget far exceeding Gov. Sonny Perdue’s recommendation.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council is seeking more funding when other state agencies are slashing their budgets to make up for a revenue shortfall. Council members said the defender agency needs the money to meet its constitutional obligations.

The request goes to the Legislature, where some lawmakers want to strip the council’s board of its power. Senate Bill 42, which would turn over authority to the defender council’s executive director, recently passed a key committee by a 5-4 vote.

On Monday, the council voted to request $1.4 million in emergency funding to keep the agency afloat through the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Separately, it voted to ask for $48.3 million for fiscal 2010, more than $12 million more than what is being recommended by Perdue.

Before the vote, executive director Mack Crawford cautioned against it.

“I think it’s suicidal, to be honest with you,” he said. Asking for more when other agencies being ordered to get by with less may do more harm than good, he said.

Dawson County Commission Chairman Mike Berg, a member of the council’s board, agreed. “You know everybody else is cutting back,” he said.

But Walker County Attorney Don Oliver, another member, said the council is asking for the bare minimum. “This agency has never been fully funded, and the money is there,” he said, referring to an indigent defense fund.

In 2004, lawmakers voted to fund the new defender system through increases in court fees and criminal fines. But the fund has been collecting millions of dollars more than what the Legislature has given the agency.

On Monday, the council voted to ask the Legislature to hold on to money collected by the fund. Whatever money is left over —- beyond what is appropriated to the defender agency —- would then be used to cover unexpected costs, such as fees for defending someone like courthouse killer Brian Nichols. Whatever money is not used for the agency would be returned as grant money to counties, the council recommended.