The $3 million that South Dakota will send to counties in the coming weeks for their indigent legal service expenses will cover less than 12% of the collective amount of those costs incurred by counties during the last fiscal year.
The Legislature approved the one-time payouts earlier this year. The Unified Judicial System recently announced the state will distribute the funds based on how much each county spent on indigent defense, which is when judges appoint legal representation for someone who can’t afford to hire an attorney. That includes court-appointed attorneys and public defenders for criminal defendants, and representation of abused and neglected children.
Minnehaha County will receive about 30% of the $3 million total, having spent $7.7 million last year. Pennington County will receive 23% of the total, having spent $5.9 million.
Sen. Randy Deibert, R-Spearfish, advocated for indigent defense funding for counties during the last legislative session, which ended in March. Deibert said the distribution is fair, but added that the funding comes too late. The distribution couldn’t be calculated until after the state established the Commission on Indigent Legal Services this spring.
Lawmakers hoped the funding would help to stabilize and offset property taxes, Deibert said. County governments can put the funding in their reserves if they’ve completed the budgeting process, but the mill levies, which control property taxes, won’t be impacted. Mill levies are set based on the county’s budget.
State law requires county commissioners to adopt a budget by Oct. 1 each year, though county budgets are often finalized in September. While some counties might still be able to squeeze in the projected reimbursement amounts, others won’t, Deibert said. Ideally, the funding should have been distributed in July or August, he added.
“If counties could have budgeted that money, they might have been able to reduce the mill levy,” Deibert said.
Deibert co-chaired a summer committee in 2023 studying county funding issues. The committee recommended a cap on indigent defense costs for counties, above which the state would have been required to cover expenses. The price tag of the proposal ranged from $35 to $50 million at the time.
The Legislature instead passed a bill to create the Commission on Indigent Legal Services and a state public defender office , which included the $3 million one-time reimbursement for counties. The public defender’s office will handle appeals by indigent defendants to the state Supreme Court, while counties will remain responsible to provide representation to indigent defendants prior to their appeals.
Deibert hopes to continue reimbursing counties and increase the amount to $20 million; or, he said, the state could take over indigent legal services completely.
“That’s a big request,” Deibert said.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota sends counties $3 million for indigent defense, covering 12% of expenses
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