Senate Bill S3641

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S3641

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act authorizing the state comptroller to
distribute certain funds from the indigent legal services fund to
certain counties

 PURPOSE OF BILL :

This bill would permit five counties to receive funding from the
Indigent Legal Services Fund (ILSF) even though they did not meet the
statutory maintenance of effort (MOE) formula.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of the bill would amend State Finance Law § 98-b to allow
the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) to make a distribution of
funds in the ILSF to counties that failed to meet the MOE requirements
in section 98-b(4)(c). A county would receive its full share from the
distribution to be made on March 31, 2009, if it could show that the
amount of local funds expended on indigent defense in 2008 exceeded
the average annual amount of local funds expended during the 2005,
2006 and 2007 calendar years. If a county does not qualify for ILSF
funds based on this three-year averaging, it could still receive an
ILSF distribution, but its share would be reduced by the percentage
decrease in local funds expended in the 2008 calendar year. Any money
deducted from the noncompliant county shares would be distributed to
              

all of the remaining counties that met the MOE, according to their
percentage share of the statewide sum of local funds expended by each
county.

Section 2 of the bill provides that the act would take effect
immediately and would be deemed to have been in full force and effect
on March 31, 2009.

 EXISTING LAW :

State Finance Law § 98-b establishes the ILSF, which is the fund
through which OSC distributes the State contribution to indigent
services to the counties and New York City. This year, the fund
contains about $76.5 million.

To be eligible for its share of the fund, a county must meet an MOE
formula designed to ensure that the State funds do not supplant local
funds, and are used to improve the quality of indigent defense
services.  If counties fail to meet the MOE, they receive no State
funds, and the shares of the non-compliant counties are distributed to
the compliant counties. Under the law, all distributions from the ILSF
from funds received during a calendar year must be made by March 31st
of the following year.

 STATEMENT IN SUPPORT :

This year, five counties, Delaware, Herkimer, Nassau, Otsego and
Wayne, did not meet the MOE, and they are therefore not eligible to
receive any funds from the ILSF as part of the March 31, 2009
distribution. If they had met the MOE, these counties would have
received approximately $3 million. This loss of ILSF funding will
place serious fiscal burdens on these counties, and the quality of
indigent representation provided in the counties would likely suffer.

This bill would permit OSC, in the March 31, 2009 distribution, to
make a full or partial ILSF distribution to the five counties that did
not meet the MOE. These distributions would be made under either of
two scenarios. First, if a county could establish that the amount of
local funds expended in 2008 exceeded the average annual amount of
local funds expended during 2005, 2006 and 2007, it could receive its
full distribution from the fund. Second, if a county could not satisfy
the three-year averaging formula, it would receive a distribution of
ILSF funds, but its share would be reduced by the percentage decrease
in local funds expended in the 2008 calendar year.

It is anticipated that, under the modified formula in this bill,
Nassau County would qualify for a full distribution of ILSF funds, and
that Delaware, Herkimer, Otsego and Wayne would receive reduced
shares. The money not distributed to these four noncompliant counties
would then be included in the amount to be distributed to the
compliant counties.  Because these distributions must be made by March
31, 2009, this bill must become law by March 27, 2009, in order to
give OSC the time to re-calculate the amount of each county's
distribution.

 BUDGET IMPLICATIONS :

This bill will have no impact of the State financial plan but would
provide fiscal relief to the five counties that did not meet the MOE
formula.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This bill would become effective immediately and would be deemed to
have been in full force and effect on or before March 31, 2009.