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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Wirth

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/20/06

HB 124

SHORT TITLE Non-Death Penalty Contract Attorney Rates

SB

ANALYST Medina

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$15,200.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Response Received From

Public Defender Department

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 124 appropriates $11.5 million from the general fund to the Public Defender Depart-

ment for the purpose of contracting with attorneys for the representation of indigent defendants

in non-death penalty cases, and $3.7 million from the general fund to the Public Defender De-

partment for additional attorneys and support staff statewide. The bill also proposes new material

to the Public Defender Act setting a minimum hourly rate of $75.00/hour for contract attorney

representation of public defender clients in non-death penalty cases.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $15.2 million contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall

revert to the general fund. (See “Conflict” below)

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Public Defender Department (PDD) notes that this appropriation is not included in the Ex-

ecutive budget recommendation, which the department supports.

House Bill 124 – Page 2

CONFLICT

This bill conflicts with both the LFC’s and the Executive’s PDD appropriation recommendations

to the Legislature. The Executive appropriation recommendation of $10 million in the contrac-

tual services category includes $9.8 million to provide for contract attorney fees. The LFC rec-

ommends $11 million for contractual services, including $10.7 million for contract attorney fees.

In FY05, PDD expended $8.6 million in contract attorney fees and in FY06 the department is

budgeted to expend $9.6 million. The appropriation contained in this bill would effectively more

than double the appropriation for expenditure on contract attorney fees.

Both the LFC and the Executive also recommended base expansion for additional PDD staff.

The LFC recommended $325.2 thousand for 10 additional permanent FTE distributed among the

Clovis, Aztec and Albuquerque offices, all of which experience high caseloads. The Executive

recommended $1 million for 19 additional permanent in those areas of the state with the highest

caseloads per attorney.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The Public Defender Department does not currently have a minimum hourly rate for its contract

attorneys. Instead, the department sets flat fee rates that depend on the nature of the case handled

by the contractor. While the rates vary by judicial district, they range from $150.00 to $180.00

for a misdemeanor case to $5.0 thousand for a non-death penalty first degree murder case.

ALTERNATIVES

The LFC and the Executive recommendations for the PDD budget are viable alternatives to this

legislation.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

How was $75.00/hour determined to be a fair hourly rate as proposed by this bill.

DXM/mt