By PETER WONG/Oregon Capital Bureau
Lawmakers have released $100 million to fund the legal defense of criminal defendants and more than $150 million to boost reimbursement to providers of behavioral health services for low-income Oregonians.
There were some dissenters on Friday’s votes by the Emergency Board, the 20 lawmakers who decide budget issues between sessions of the full Legislature.
Lawmakers had already withheld $100 million from the two-year budget of the Public Defense Services Commission, which oversees a network that provides legal defense statewide. Legal defense has been hindered by court closures stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, the resulting backlog of cases, and inadequate reimbursement for lawyers working such cases.
A shortage of lawyers has led some defendants in Multnomah and Washington counties to go unrepresented — and some low-level criminal cases dismissed in Multnomah County.
A high-level work group involving all three branches of government is focused on the problems of indigent defense, which the state assumed when trial courts were transferred from the counties in 1983. (Public defense is a separate office within the judicial branch.)
“It’s not good,” Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat from Salem and a lawyer who sits on the task force, said during the E-Board meeting. “It’s not important whether the judiciary is at fault, the governor is at fault, or we are at fault. We are dealing with the right to counsel, which is as fundamental a constitutional right as we have. Everybody agrees with that.”
A 1963 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court requires states under the federal Constitution to provide lawyers for criminal defendants who cannot afford representation themselves.
Withholding part of an agency budget is an unusual but not unprecedented move by lawmakers, who can delegate the E-Board to release money once their concerns are resolved.
Full amount released
The original recommendation from the Legislative Fiscal Office, which does the staff work for the E-Board, was for release of $63.2 million, and the rest to be considered at the next meeting in September. But a subcommittee recommended the release of the full $100 million to account for other expenses not foreseen in the agency budget.
“I am not willing to wait until September,” Courtney said. “I am not going to second-guess those on the front lines on this. I respect our Legislative Fiscal Office, but I do not agree with them on this. We are going to be pounding on this for a long time to come.”
According to Stephen Singer, executive director of the Office of Public Defense Services, the new contracts for legal defense will represent overall increases between 1% and 10%. Reimbursement rates in some instances, however, will increase sharply.
“We’re giving a 30% increase in fees for this agency,” Sen. Fred Girod, R-Lyons, said. “So everyone within government … is going to say we have a shortage of people who want to participate and we’re going to have to up our fees.”
But Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaverton, said the money will help put public defenders more on a par with prosecutors in district attorneys’ offices. Even with the release of the money, she said, “they are still well below district attorneys. This is not generous remuneration by any means.”
Girod was joined in opposition by Republican Sens. Lynn Findley of Vale and Tim Knopp of Bend, and Rep. Werner Reschke of Klamath Falls. But Republican Reps. Vikki Breese-Iverson of Prineville, Greg Smith of Heppner and Duane Stark of Grants Pass voted with all six Democratic senators and six Democratic representatives to approve the release.
Smith, echoing Courtney, said lawmakers had no choice because of the constitutional requirement.
Mental health money
Lawmakers also approved the release of $42.5 million already approved from the tax-supported general fund and $112 million in federal funds to boost reimbursement for providers of behavioral health services under the Oregon Health Plan.
As of May 30, the plan provides state-supported health insurance to 1.4 million Oregonians, about a third of the state’s population. (Under Medicaid, the federal government shares health insurance costs with states for low-income people.)
Girod also raised a similar objection to increased rates — which average 30% — but Stark said some rates are unchanged and some go beyond the average. On this vote, only Reschke joined Girod in opposition. All the other Republicans joined all Democrats to approve it; Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, was absent.
Smith said the increase would help the state secure more providers of behavioral health services, which are in short supply.
“We can do better for our most vulnerable citizens,” he said.
- The Oregon Capital Bureau in Salem is staffed by reporters from EO Media and Pamplin Media Group and provides state government and political news to their newspapers and media around Oregon, including YachatsNews.com