County courts struggle with cuts

Cuts to Minnesota’s court system could cost McLeod County as much as $42,500 next year.

To balance its own budget this year, the state Legislature reduced funding for the Minnesota Board of Public Defenders. The public defenders, in an effort to live within their newly reduced means, announced they would no longer represent children under age 10 or parents in child-protection cases.

Because everyone, under state statute, is entitled to legal representation, counties, including McLeod, will have to appoint attorneys to represent those who can’t afford their own legal help.

At least, that’s how Steven Holmgren sees it. Holmgren is the chief public defender for Minnesota’s First Judicial District, which includes McLeod and six other counties.

According to Holmgren, state law is clear about who’s ultimately responsible for providing that service: Minnesota counties.

Lawsuits brewing?
Jim Mulder, executive director for the Association of Minnesota Counties, insists it’s not such an open-and-shut case. “The law is unclear,” he said.

Mulder said prior to the 1990s, counties were responsible for all court costs, except judges’ salaries. Beginning in 1994, the state government began taking over funding for courts, leaving counties off the hook in child-protection cases.

“We are still responsible for the physical space, the bailiff, the county attorney,” he said.

The statute Holmgren cites, Mulder believes, is a legacy from before the state takeover of court funding and should have been revised years ago. “When this was done,” he said, “there were probably over 100 pieces of law that had to be changed.”

Mulder said the Association of Minnesota Counties won’t be suing the state over the issue. “We have no standing to actually bring a direct action,” he noted.

But that won’t stop individual counties from going that route.