New Mexico public defender gets $400,000 emergency loan

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The New Mexico public defender’s office will be able to continue providing legal representation to hundreds of people across the state after the state Board of Finance approved a $400,000 loan for the office.

The emergency money approved Thursday will allow contract lawyers to be paid to represent the poor and juveniles, and it will be doled out as reimbursements are sought. The office will be required to pay back the money over the next two fiscal years.

Chief Public Defender Jorge Alvarado sought nearly $600,000 for services to some 1,600 people through the end of the fiscal year. He had hoped to lift a hiring freeze that has been in place since December, but that will likely continue.

“Certainly we’ll take any amount this board feels appropriate,” Alvarado told the panel of which Gov. Susana Martinez, a former prosecutor, is the president. But “this is a loan, and it starts chipping away at next year’s budget,” he said.

Alvarado’s office had projected a deficit of $1.75 million for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends June 30, due to contract counsel costs and other litigation expenses. But with the hiring freeze and other cost cutting measures, the office is now short nearly $600,000.

The contract counsel costs rose because an unstable flat rate payment system instituted in some counties didn’t work. Under that system, contract attorneys were paid $700 for a first-degree felony case and less for cases with lesser charges.

The office ending up spending more than anticipated when it found that defendants were not getting top quality representation, and it started to pay more for some cases, Alvarado told board members.

The office then adjusted to an hourly flat rate of $85 and started saving money. Still, in appropriating money for the next fiscal year budget, legislators inserted language that money allocated for the public defender can’t be used for hourly contracts.

In other action, the board denied a request by the Administrative Office of the Courts for $750,000 in emergency money largely for magistrate court operations throughout the state.

Board members suggested the office tap money available in the warrant enforcement fund, but court officials say the use of that money is restricted by state law.