Governor's budget cuts hourly rate for appointed counsel

The governor recently released his plan to balance the state's budget for fiscal year 2010. The expenditure changes for BIDS are described as follows:

Add $173,163 for Assigned Counsel caseload; then reduce $686,456 to reduce Assigned Counsel hourly rate from $80 to $62.

Here is a press release from the governor's office discussing the budget plan.

Here is a Hutch News article reporting on the cut-backs and reactions to them.