Idaho Bills

Appropriates $314,100 to the Public Defense Commission for fiscal year 2017; and limits the number of authorized full-time equivalent positions to 1.5.

Thisbillappropriates$314,100tothePublicDefenseCommissionforFY2017andcapsthenumber of authorized full-time equivalent positions at 1.50. The bill includes funding for the employer's share of increased benefit costs and accounts for increases in statewide cost allocation. It provides for an ongoing 3% merit-based increase in employee compensation for permanent employees to be distributed at the discretion of agency heads and funds the 27th payroll. One line item provides for a net-zero object transfer of $110,000 from trustee and benefit payments to operating expenditures to align the appropriation with the use of the funds.

Appropriates an additional $5,482,800 to the Public Defense Commission for fiscal year 2017; and authorizes an additional 4.5 full-time equivalent positions.

This is a trailer appropriation bill that provides funding to the Public Defense Commission for costs associated with its expanded roles and responsibilities, as established by H504. This bill appropriates an additional $5,482,800 to the Public Defense Commission for FY 2017 as follows: $4,266,500 for formulaic grants to counties to offset the cost of compliance with indigent defense standards; $550,000 to incentivize counties to merge their services and form joint public defender offices; $250,000 for additional funding to counties for extraordinary litigation costs; and $368,700 in personnel costs, $34,200 in operating expenditures, $13,400 in one-time capital outlay, and 4.50 FTP to the Public Defense Commission.