Early 2022 Legislative Update
by Heather Cessna, BIDS Executive Director
This space in the newsletter was supposed to be reserved for giving everyone a preview of what the legislative session has in store for BIDS this Spring. But ironically, that legislative session took off on a dead run several weeks ago and shows no sign of stopping any time soon, so rather than a preview – here’s an update on what is currently in process for BIDS this session.
My main focus is our budget. Most specifically, our 3.9 million dollar request to put a full-agency pay scale readjustment into place to be able to provide better pay parity with prosecutor’s offices and with other comparable government salaries. The requested adjustment is for both our attorneys and all of our support staff. It is our number one priority this year, and the good news is, it seems that salary and wage issues across state agencies are a top priority for the Governor and legislature as well.
In mid-January, Governor Kelly released her budget recommendations for BIDS’ budget, which included a full 3.9 million dollar recommendation in support of our pay scale adjustment request, as well as additional infrastructure funding and additional funding for our assigned counsel program. There were several items we asked for – including a training budget, funding for additional staffing, and funding for a new public defender office in Douglas County – that she did not recommend, but that we will continue to advocate for those to the legislature.
Starting at the end of January, both Senate Ways and Means and the House Transportation and Public Safety Budget Subcommittee held special hearings dedicated to hearing details from key state agencies about lagging salaries. North Central Regional Public Defender Chief Cole Hawver and I testified at both of those hearings about the issues with our current salary structure, and the need for, not just a one-time adjustment, but for a commitment to ongoing regular cost of living and merit raises as well. We also discussed the consequences of suppressed salaries on turnover, caseloads, and the hidden fiscal costs involved for the state. We fielded a number of thoughtful questions from the legislators involved in those hearings, which I believe shows that they recognize the issues and are dedicated to working with us to find a valid solution. You can watch our testimony in the House here (around the 4:06 mark) and the Senate here (around the 10:58 mark).
We’ve also had our initial hearing on our full budget request in the Senate Ways and Means General Government Budget Subcommittee. That committee is reviewing our full budget request, which includes not just the pay scale adjustment, but also funding requests for a training budget, new public defenders and public defense staff for our trial, appellate, and capital divisions, new office space for our death penalty trial unit, licensing upgrades for our Westlaw services and additional licensing for investigation background checks, among other items. Our budget request also includes funding to establish a Douglas County public defender office, and funding support for our assigned counsel panel attorneys. I testified in-person at that hearing and you can listen to my testimony here (around the 12:22 mark).
At the end of that hearing, the Committee ultimately agreed to recommend the Governor’s budget recommendations, but also asked for the full Senate Ways and Means committee to review several additional budget requests we’ve made, including our additional staffing requests. That hearing has not yet been set, but when it is, we’ll keep all of you in the loop on that progress.
Our House budget committee (the House Transportation and Public Safety Budget Subcommittee) will be hearing our full budget request on February 14th. From there, they will make recommendations to the House Appropriations Committee. We’ve still got a long way to go before any of this budget discussion is settled, but so far the conversations have been encouraging as the legislators involved ask good questions, understand the importance of what we do as public defenders, and appreciate the vital role we fill in the Kansas criminal legal system.
The final bit of good news I have to share is that, once again, we are not making these arguments alone. The Kansas Bar Association has been an excellent partner to us over the last two years, helping us advocate on behalf of our funding needs at every step along the way. Additionally, for the second year in a row, both Kansas Attorney General Derrick Schmidt and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett both submitted testimony in support of fully funding public defense in Kansas. The Douglas County Commission filed testimony supporting our request to fund an office in their jurisdiction. Chief Judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals, Karen Arnold-Burger, submitted neutral testimony regarding the importance of representation at the earliest stages of a criminal case on behalf of the Kansas Supreme Court Pretrial Justice Task Force. And Chief Justice Luckert’s chief counsel submitted neutral testimony about the key role that public defense plays in our criminal legal system.
As promised, we will continue to keep you up to date on the legislative process as things move along. And, in the meantime, rest assured that we’ve got your backs and there are an awful lot of other people that have ours as well.