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Monday, February 12, 2007
Time to cap gas-guzzling programs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Almost seven years later, the warning issued by state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) when the 2000 General Assembly expanded eligibility for PeachCare is seen as prophetic:
“The money from Congress [for PeachCare] is sun-setted,” Johnson warned as the state Senate considered expanding the household income eligibility. “So once we have everyone addicted to free health care, we may have to take it away from them.”
Not to worry, said then-Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker, an Augusta Democrat now serving more than 10 years in prison on a variety of charges, including evading the federal income taxes he was confident would forever flow. “We’re confident President Al Gore will continue it,” said Walker. On such assurances, the bill passed 51-0 to expand eligiblity from about $34,000 for a family of four to about $40,000, or 235 percent of the federal poverty level at the time.
Similar assurances were given in 2003 when the state passed the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council indigent defense system — one of which was that the cost would be $60 million to $80 million per year when it was up and running in 2005. The costs to counties and the state for indigent defense have topped $100 million, notes state Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A nightmare murder case that has yet come to trial in Fulton County reveals so many flaws in the system’s design that it would be irresponsible for the Georgia General Assembly to go home this year without fixing them.
Legal fees in the Brian Nichols case in Fulton County had topped $1.2 million by the end of December. Nichols’ three private lawyers — he also has a public defender assigned to represent him — are paid fees of up to $174 per hour. To cover a projected $9.5 million shortfall in the council’s budget, fees paid to private lawyers in other death penalty cases were cut from $125 to $95 per hour last month.
The Nichols case is alarming to legislators and others concerned about runaway costs for entitlement programs. If every judge can generate bills to be paid by taxpayers as he sees fit, it’s Katie bar the door. It’s not entirely certain, says state Sen. John Wiles (R-Marietta), that judges have that authority — but legislation to clarify that gray area is among a number of bills being introduced. “If there’s no accountability to the fund, if the state is a blank check, then why should you limit your costs at all?” asks Smith. “If the Brian Nichols case can generate 4,000 hours of legal fees, then why can’t the same thing be done in Gwinnett County or Telfair County? Pretty soon, people will have the right to an O.J. Simpson defense on the taxpayers’ dime.”
Wiles and Smith have introduced another bill that would move the indigent defense system from the judicial branch into the executive, largely to get a handle on future costs. Now, says Wiles, the judiciary’s budget is routinely added into the governor’s request and passed along to the General Assembly. It should be measured in the executive branch against competing needs, he argues. He and Smith think taxpayers are providing sufficient funds. “It’s not a funding issue; it’s an expenditure issue,” says Wiles.
Smith believes a structural problem exists “that is going to lead to an inevitable recurrence of the same situation” the public is seeing in the Nichols case. “Attorneys are bound by oath to zealously represent their clients,” he says. “Now you have the state … picking up the bill, whatever that bill would be.” In the past, in both the state and federal system, judges controlled fees and hours in providing defendants what was affirmed to be a “constitutionally reasonable defense,” says Smith.
Because judges managed fees, hours and cases, lawyers had incentive to move them along and to settle. That incentive is gone, or at least considerably diminished, in the new system. Case volume generates state funding. And in court, lawyers and judges are relatively free to run up the tab.
While the General Assembly’s attention is repeatedly drawn this session to matters of little import — Sunday beer sales, for example — it should not leave town without substantially capping the growth potential of two spending programs, PeachCare and the Public Defender Standards Council, that have the potential to spin out of control.
Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor.
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Lexus lanes, celebrities and resignations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Notes from the weekend:
Item: The general manager of the Cartoon Network, Jim Samples, resigned on Friday “in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch” — that beingthe marketing campaign gone awry in Boston. With his resignation, I immediately join the Jim Samples Fan Club. At last, a key figure in a bad scene takes responsibility genuinely. He was in charge of an embarassment that cost his company big bucks and he paid the price. I’d hire him tomorrow.
The first day’s treatment of the network’s Boston scare was to poke fun at police for failing to recognize a marketing prank. But in the age of shoe-bombers and liquid explosive devices, I prefer cops who over-react and suppose the worst until convinced otherwise. Turner Broadcasting’s apology and $2 million payment to Boston authorities as compensation for costs incurred in dealing with the marketing dummies was warranted.
Item: Does the Anna Nichole Smith age of celebrity — famous for being famous — suggest that a first-term U.S. Senator famous for a speech he made to the Democratic National Convention have a shot at being elected President of the United States? U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declared Saturday. The media loves this guy and, for the moment at least, he’s the beneficiary of its uncritical adulation. The suggestion here is not that he’s another Anna Nichole Smith, but to note that the public develops a fascination with some personalities and rewards them for being “famous.” I still think Hillary’s the Democratic nominee, but her capitulation to the party’s anti-war left in the face of Obama’s challenge erases any question about whether she has the strength of character to be President. She doesn’t. Like her husband, she’s a Poll Mold.
Item: I’ve never understood why any of us should get agitated about the so-called “Lexus lanes” on interstates, or by an airport security sytsem that allows frequent flyers to pay for a background screening check that would allow them to whiz through airport security lines. The idea that somebody could use their wealth to buy “special treatment” infuriates most Americans. Neither bothers me. Anything that shortens my line in traffic or in waiting to pass through airport screening suits me just fine.
Item: The Dixie Chicks win three top Grammys Sunday night. The judging standard for the Chicks is 20 percent music, 80 percent politics. In your eye, George Bush!
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