101 days into the fiscal year, a final budget has been adopted and is on its way to the Governor for his expected signature. Despite a number of scares along the way, and lots of ups and downs, funding for civil legal services came out fairly well. Not fully what we had hoped for, but also not the low point that looked very possible at times.

Here is where we are. The state appropriation for legal services is $3.064 million, compared last year’s appropriation of $3.172 million, which got reduced to $3.072 as the Governor began to freeze many areas of spending due to declining state revenues. You can click here to view the complete budget bill, HB 1416, which is a 434 page bill, because of amendments. As a pdf document, you can word search any item of interest, by hitting control and the “f” key at the same time, and then typing the word you are searching. The legal services line is at p. 337. You’ll also find at p. 338 our federal Social Services Block Grant funding of $5.049 million; the same it has been for quite a few years. This had already been included in the temporary spending bill, SB 850, previously signed by the Governor, passed when it became apparent there would be no final budget soon.

The Governor’s budget released in February had recommended legal services be funded at last year’s appropriated level, $3.172 million, and this was the amount passed by the House in earlier versions of the budget. The Senate twice passed budgets that would have completely zeroed out our state budget appropriation, keeping only the SSBG funding in tact. Our original request for funding had been to adjust the $3.172 million for inflation. We also circulated a $2 million proposal for special funding to support mortgage foreclosure representation. In a year when many lines were cut, we have to feel pretty good coming out at the level we did. In fact, during tough budget times of the past, there have been across-the-board decreases for many programs, including our own, such as in the 2003-4 fiscal year.

On the filing fee side, the passage Tuesday of HB 1607 was a major breakthrough for legal services. You can click here to view this bill. Our part is at pages 15-16, and 72.

We were very pleased to have been approached by the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts in late June/early July, about their interest in including legal services as part of a special temporary filing fee to help support the Courts and legal services, with an Access to Justice theme, in light of a state budget process that clearly seemed headed in a direction of inadequate funding for both. When HB 1861, the original filing fee bill, passed the House, funding for legal services was at about $8 million annually, for a 25 month period, with higher funding for the Courts too. The version ultimately adopted, in HB 1607, lowered the Court’s funding and it lowered legal services to $2.8 million annually, keeping the 25 month sunset for the Courts and legal services. As originally passed by the House, the filing fee provisions also included support for district attorney salaries and domestic violence shelters. As a result of the Senate amendments, domestic violence shelter funding was eliminated, help for district attorney salaries was increased, and support for Courts and legal services was cut.

Our message in support of the temporary filing centered on the dramatic reductions in IOLTA funding. Funding to legal services is down about $10 million on an annualized basis, compared to two years ago. While we expect IOLTA revenues to go back up in a couple of years, when interest rates go back up, for now this is creating quite a crisis in legal services. A new lawyer assessment of $25, enacted by the Supreme Court this fiscal year, is generating about $1.5 million to help offset the shortfall. The $8 million in temporary filing fees would have made up for the rest. So we remain behind funding of a couple of years ago, but instead of being $10 million behind, the shortfall has been cut by about $4.3 million, while we still try to access stimulus funds to make more headway.

It is hard to celebrate successes when we come up short of the result we had hoped for. But compared to the possible outcomes; no state funding and/or no temporary filing fee, we should celebrate what we were able to achieve, while still working for the full success we hoped for, through other means. We also have to recognize that there are many interests included in the budget process that were not at all successful. There are many individuals and organizations to thank for their support. I won’t risk trying to list the individuals here, for fear of leaving out some important names. The fact is that some supporters worked behind the scenes in ways that aren’t well known, and some did a great deal of highly visible work to support access to justice. Certainly the following interests need to be thanked: 

• House and Senate leaders and staff who consistently supported full funding in the budget and who supported the full version of the filing fee bill. (These folks do need to be named, and will be, but I want to be careful to have a good list first.)
   
• House and Senate members who voted in favor of the various versions of the bill. (I have to be careful to point out that at some times, our supporters recorded a no vote, because of their dissatisfaction with the treatment of legal services and the Courts.)
   
• The AOPC and the Courts, who viewed legal services funding all along as an important feature of Access to Justice, along with Court funding.
   
• Lawyers of Pennsylvania, who saw the need for this funding. While the PBA worked hard for our funding in the state budget, the Trial Lawyers worked hard both for the budget and fee needs. Many county bar associations passed resolutions and also worked to support both efforts.