Governor defends record on public-defender budget

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday defended his budget record for the state's public-defender system after the office's director appointed him to a case in protest of recent funding restrictions.

Missouri State Public Defender director Michael Barrett in a letter last week slammed Nixon for cutting funding for what Barrett described as an "indigent" defense system.

After a news conference in Jefferson City, Nixon responded by touting a 15 percent increase in the office's budget since he's been governor.

That amounts to roughly $5.4 million more, from about $35.7 million in fiscal year 2009 to about $41.1 million in the current fiscal year.

Nixon said about $1.8 million set aside for the agency last fiscal year went unspent and said the office "ought to make sure that they're getting the most efficiency they can out of the dollars they have."

"I'm not saying folks don't deserve lawyers, but bottom line is there's a lot of needs in government," Nixon said.

The recent pushback came after lawmakers budgeted a $4.5 million funding increase for the office this fiscal year. The additional funding followed warnings from Barrett his office needs almost twice as many attorneys, and because of their large workloads, public defenders were spending 40 percent less time on cases than private defense lawyers would.

Nixon cut that down to a $1 million increase, citing lagging revenue growth. The Public Defender System last month filed a lawsuit over Nixon's funding restriction.

Barrett said the percentage increase in the system's budget since Nixon took office doesn't amount to much more in actual cash.

He added the number of cases, litigation costs and attorney dues also have gone up, meaning not all the additional funding can go toward hiring more lawyers.