Playing politics with defenders' paychecks

Seems to me, the least we should be able to expect from state legislators is that they pay the bills on time.

But not even a public shaming by the governor has been enough to motivate state representatives to approve funding to pay hundreds of state-appointed attorneys, interpreters and court reporters for work they've already done.

The state's indigent defense fund has been bone-dry since Feb. 22. We owe more than $2 million for their work on behalf of juveniles and criminal defendants who can't afford their own legal fees.

Now we're looking at paying thousands of dollars in interest on those late payments, not because the state is broke or because the funding is controversial, but because legislators have been playing political Ping-Pong.

Meanwhile, some of these small-business owners are struggling just to make payroll or rent.

“I've done the work and I've earned the money. I'm just not being paid,” Cedar Rapids attorney Kelly Steele told me Tuesday.

State Public Defender Sam Langholz told me on Tuesday that his office is ready to cut checks as soon as legislators give the OK.

“Everyone I've talked to understands that it's very important that it pass,” he said when I asked when that might be. “It's just a question of timing.”

But if timing was really the issue, legislators wouldn't have let the money run out in the first place.

And they would have shown a little more initiative after Gov. Terry Branstad urged them last week to just approve the funding already.

“Let's get that done and continue to work on the other issues,” he said.

A Senate bill (SF 512) separating allocation from more controversial concerns still was stuck in a House committee late Tuesday. Republican lawmakers say they hope to come to an agreement by week's end.

Week's end?

“It would be a different thing if they were arguing over what my salary should be in the future, or my rate, or the number of cases I could take on,” Steele told me Tuesday. “I wouldn't have a problem with that.”

You or me, if our bosses decided to play politics with our paychecks, we'd just quit. But most private attorneys who take court-appointed cases do so on principle, not because it will make them rich (it won't).

“I know it's not the most popular job in the world, but I think people deserve to be represented in court,” Steele told me.

It should go without saying: The people who have represented them deserve to be paid.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net