So SF 209 is still alive. Apparently the conference committee has been working on it. I’m not going to completely believe this until the Governor signs the bill, but things are definitely looking up. Here’s the full text of an email I received from the ISBA tonight:
“Dear Erek,
Iowa State Bar Association leadership is happy to report that at approximately 4:45 pm Thursday afternoon the House and Senate reached an agreement on SF 209. This is the conference committee bill that contains the indigent defense funding.
Preliminary highlights of the deal include:
- Creation of a new Tax Relief Fund to capture up to $60 million of surplus revenue annually and return it to the taxpayers
- $141 million in income tax relief over 2 years via coupling with bonus depreciation and increase in Earned Income Tax Credit
- $18.6 million for indigent defense and public defender
- $27.2 million in supplemental appropriations for priority areas like mental health institutes, prisons, and community colleges
- $20 million for mental health waiting lists and other mental health spending, repeal of system as of July 1, 2013
The conference committee report must be prepared and signed by all members of the conference committee, and then voted upon. The report will be taken up by the Senate first because that is where the bill originated. It will then be sent to the House for their concurrence. It is hoped that the bill will be to the Governor early next week – perhaps by Tuesday or Wednesday. The stalemate has ended and a bill with supplemental appropriations will be passed sometime next week.
Frank Carroll, President
The Iowa State Association”
I’m not holding my breath…I will continue to ask friends to contact their representatives and say enough!
I’m continuing to get the word out because who knows what could still happen and when we will have to deal with this again. However it ends up, it certainly has been eye opening to see the lack of support by our own collegues practicing in other areas of the law.
Brett: You are exactly right.
So let me get this right…according to the Iowa Bar Association the matter will be concluded and on the Governor’s Desk. As far as I can determine from the Iowa Legislature website SF209 is still bouncing around in the Senate as of today, Tuesday, April 19, 2011.
This is what I was afraid of. Plus there is no guarantee the Governor will even sign it. AND of course the ISBA went ahead and cancelled the Lobby Day for tomorrow…..
The quotes I’ve seen from the governor are that he supports the supplemental appropriations made and some of the other provisions in the bill, but he may not support everything in it. Since he has the power of line-item veto, I’m not too worried about him cutting out the indigent defense appropriation. I’m still not holding my breath, but I think it will pass.
The next step is for the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House to report that it’s correct, sign it and send it to the Governor. Who knows why they haven’t done it, yet. Despite our efforts, they don’t apparently understand the urgency some people face.
Let’s be serious here – they simply do not care. They don’t believe the attorneys, court reports or interpreters aren’t that big an electorate, so why hurry… Yet, the Governor want a 2 year budget and everyone who is affected by the lack of pay can’t budget even for one day!