By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n
The state legislature this week proposed boosting a civil legal services fund in its one-house budgets that attorneys say was severely underfunded in Governor Kathy Hochul\u2019s executive budget proposal.<\/p>\n
Both the State Senate and Assembly included plans to restore $102.5 million in spending authority for the Interest on Lawyer Account Fund, which is generated from interest on attorney escrow accounts and used to pay civil legal services providers throughout the state.<\/p>\n
The spending authority matches what attorneys and civil legal services groups say is the bare minimum needed to meet demand for legal aid in New York.<\/p>\n
The budget proposals stand in contrast to the governor\u2019s first fiscal plan, which she introduced in January. Hochul proposed capping IOLA\u2019s spending at $77.5 million.<\/p>\n
Though the governor\u2019s proposal drew outrage from the state\u2019s legal community, she rejected calls to increase the fund in her amended budget, which was released in February. <\/p>\n
Unlike criminal cases in New York, there is no guaranteed right to counsel for civil cases, such as eviction, domestic violence, immigration, or estate cases. Instead, programs like IOLA fund civil legal services providers that represent New Yorkers who otherwise could not afford an attorney.<\/p>\n
Civil legal services groups rejoiced on Tuesday following the release of the state legislature\u2019s proposals. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply grateful to the New York State legislature for recognizing the importance of stable funding for civil legal services,\u201d New York Legal Services Coalition President Kristin Brown said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge the governor and legislature to ensure that the full IOLA funding included in the Senate and Assembly proposals is preserved in the final enacted budget,\u201d she added. \u201cStable IOLA funding is essential to protecting New Yorkers\u2019 homes, families, and livelihoods \u2013 and to ensuring that justice is accessible to all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legal services groups have warned that the governor\u2019s proposal would come at the expense of civil legal services providers, who rely on IOLA to fund their operations. A weakened IOLA would force the organizations to lay off staff and reduce their services, they said. <\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s proposal also comes at a crucial time for the fund \u2013 IOLA is currently in the second year of a five-year grant cycle, when legal service organizations bid for grant awards that are used to pay for staff and services.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnsuring full spending authority in the final enacted budget will allow organizations across New York to continue delivering critical services without disruption,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n
Providers also said that by increasing IOLA\u2019s spending authority to $102.5 million, the state would be protecting its civil legal services infrastructure from potential federal cuts. <\/p>\n
Hochul\u2019s office has defended its budget proposal, noting that IOLA spending has more than doubled since she first took office. The $77.5 million in spending authority would be the largest such figure the fund has ever seen, if included in the final budget. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye The state legislature this week proposed boosting a civil legal services fund in its one-house…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-160977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}