July 22, 2009 – When Gov. Jim Doyle signed the 2009-11 biennial state budget into law on June 29, a provision significantly increasing funding for civil legal needs attracted little attention. Despite the state’s fiscal crisis, the final budget plan (2009 Wisconsin Act 28) includes a welcome and significant increase in funding for civil legal services to indigent persons.
Under the new budget, funding will be increased by adding $2.38 million to the $1.25 million increase originally proposed by Gov. Doyle. As enacted, state funding for indigent civil legal services will increase $3.63 million for a total of $4.63 during the two-year biennium which started July 1. Under the final version of the new state budget, the money will be used to provide grant funding for civil legal services through the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, Inc. (WisTAF).
The Legislature first appropriated general purpose revenue or GPR – state revenue that comes largely from the income and sales taxes - to fund civil legal services for low-income individuals in the 2007-2009 state budget when it included $1 million for that purpose, a move long-supported by the State Bar.
A study released by the State Bar in March 2007 (Bridging the Justice Gap: Wisconsin’s Unmet Legal Needs) shows that more than 500,000 state residents routinely cope with evictions, divorces and other critical legal issues on their own.
When Gov. Doyle first introduced his proposed state budget on February 17, he proposed eliminating the annual $1 million GPR appropriation and replacing it with program revenue generated by the justice information surcharge. Gov. Doyle proposed providing $1 million in program revenue during the first year of the biennium and an additional $1.25 million in the second year of the biennium. To generate this funding, the governor proposed increasing the then-current $12 justice information system surcharge by $6; for each assessed surcharge, $2 would be allocated for grants for indigent civil legal services.
The justice information system surcharge is generally assessed with a court fee for the commencement or filing of certain court proceedings, including civil, small claims, forfeiture, wage earner, or garnishment actions, an appeal from municipal court, third party complaint in a civil action, or for filing a counterclaim or cross complaint in a small claims action.
On May 26, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted to further increase the first year funding by an additional $1.02 million in program revenue and the second year funding by an additional $1.36 million in program revenue, for a total increase over the governor’s recommendations of $2.38 million. This additional funding will come from another $2 increase in the justice information surcharge.
The Legislature did not alter the Joint Finance Committee’s recommendations when it gave final passage to the budget on Friday, June 26, and the governor did not alter the recommendations with any partial vetoes when he signed the budget into law on Monday, June 29. Added to the $1.25 million increase already proposed by the governor, the budget as passed adds a total of $3.63 million to the $1 million originally appropriated in the last budget, for a total of $4.63 over the two-year biennium that started July 1.
Under the funding plan, DOA must annually pay the appropriated program revenue amounts to WisTAF, which is required to distribute the moneys received as grants to programs that provide civil legal services to indigent persons. The Wisconsin Supreme Court created WisTAF in 1986 as a charitable organization under SCR Chapter 13 to receive funding from the interest on lawyers' trust accounts and to provide grants to agencies providing civil legal services to indigent persons.
At the time the Legislature first allocated the initial $1 million annual funding in 2007, other Midwestern states, including our regional neighbors, were already far ahead of Wisconsin in providing state funds of indigent civil legal needs. For example, Ohio provided $14 million for civil legal services, Minnesota $12 million, and Michigan $7 million. Until the Legislature passed the 2007-09 state budget in late 2007, Wisconsin was the only state in the Midwest that provided no state funding for these essential services, and more than 30 states provided at least $1 million in funding for general civil legal services.
The increase in state funding for indigent civil legal needs is the latest in a series of recent victories for State Bar-supported initiatives aimed at directing more resources toward access to justice for Wisconsin’s neediest residents.
On June 5, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered a new rule directing the creation of an Access to Justice Commission to oversee moderate and low-income people’s access to civil justice. The commission will be charged with developing and encouraging means of expanding access to the civil justice system for unrepresented low-income Wisconsin residents. The State Bar had petitioned the court last summer for the commission as a key recommendation of the State Bar’s 2007 Bridging the Justice Gap report mentioned above. The commission will be formed as a non-stock, non-profit corporation within Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code similar to WisTAF. Financial and staffing support for the commission will be provided by the State Bar, which has set aside up to $300,000 for at least the first three years of the commission’s operation.
Also, on July 1, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued its final order in response to the comparable interest petition filed last year by WisTAF. The new rule, effective January 1, 2010, will require attorneys to hold IOLTA funds in the account with the highest interest rate that is available to other customers at the financial institution when the IOLTA account meets the same minimum balance and other account qualifications. The State Bar strongly supported the WisTAF petition, which was aimed at increasing the amount of interest generated on accounts held by lawyers on behalf of clients or third parties.
Continue to monitor WisBar.org and visit the State Bar’s Government Relations page for updated legislative information.
Adam Korbitz is a Government Relations coordinator for the State Bar of Wisconsin.
Related articles:
Governor signs state budget into law – June 29, 2009
Joint Finance completes budget: the good, the bad and the ugly – June 1, 2009
Order directs new chapter of Supreme Court Rules for Access to Justice Commission – June 5, 2009
Joint Finance expands SPD eligibility, boosts indigent civil legal services – May 27, 2009
State Bar urges budget conferees to make access to justice a Wisconsin priority – July 25, 2007
State Bar Praises Budget Proposal for Civil Legal Assistance – September 20, 2007
Rotunda Report is a new newsletter, issued once every two weeks, from the State Bar of Wisconsin that highlights legislative, judicial and administrative developments that impact the legal profession and the justice system. It is produced by the Bar’s Government Relations Team and is distributed free to attorneys, public officials and others who help shape public policy in Wisconsin. We invite your suggestions to make the Rotunda Report more informative and useful and we encourage you to visit our website for the most current information about justice-related issues.
© 2009, State Bar of Wisconsin
