Assigned to JUD & APPROP FOR
COMMITTEE
Assigned to JUD & APPROP FOR
COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Third Legislature, Second Regular Session
juvenile dependence proceedings fund
Purpose
Establishes the State Aid for Juvenile Dependency Proceedings Fund (Fund) to be administered by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC). Appropriates $1,500,000 to the Fund from the state General Fund (GF) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019.
Background
ACJC performs various coordinating, monitoring and reporting functions regarding the administration and management of criminal justice programs in Arizona. ACJC’s two key statutory responsibilities are conducting criminal justice research and administering state and federal grants. ACJC also monitors the progress and implementation of criminal justice legislation; facilitates improvements in criminal justice information and data sharing; maintains criminal justice system information; prepares, compiles and disseminates specified criminal justice-related reports; and oversees the Arizona Statistical Analysis Center (A.R.S. § 41-2405).
ACJC consists of 19 members, including city and county leaders and representatives from the Attorney General’s Office, the Board of Executive Clemency, law enforcement, probation and courts (A.R.S. § 41-2404).
By January 8 of each year, ACJC reports to each county board of supervisors, the Governor, the Legislature, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General on the expenditure of the monies in the State Aid to County Attorneys Fund and the State Aid to Indigent Defense Fund for the prior fiscal year and on the progress made in achieving the goal of improved criminal case processing (A.R.S. § 41-2409).
The bill has a fiscal impact to the state GF of $1,500,000 in FY 2019.
Provisions
1. Establishes the Fund consisting of legislative appropriations.
2. Appropriates $1,500,000 from the state GF to the Fund in FY 2019.
3. Exempts appropriations from lapsing.
4. Requires monies in the Fund to provide state aid to county public defenders, legal defenders and contract indigent defense counsel for the processing of juvenile dependency cases.
5. Requires the State Treasurer, upon notice from ACJC, to invest and divest monies in the Fund, administer the Fund, and distribute monies in the Fund to each county on or before September 1 of each year.
6. Requires continuous appropriation of monies in the Fund.
7. Formulates the county distributions from the Fund by dividing the three-year average of the total juvenile dependency case filings in the superior court in the county divided by the statewide three-year average of the total juvenile dependency filings in the superior courts of all 15 counties.
8. Requires the Board to separately account for the monies transmitted to the counties and spend those monies as prescribed in statute.
9. Requires the county treasurer to invest monies in the Fund and spend interest earned on those monies as prescribed in statute.
10. Requires ACJC to include Fund expenditures from the prior FY and progress towards achieving the goal of improved juvenile dependency case processing in their annual report relating to fund expenditures and progress towards achieving the goal of improved criminal case proceedings.
11. Clarifies that the Office of Economic Opportunity, as opposed to the Department of Economic Security, adopts county population data.
12. Makes a conforming change.
13. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
House Action
APPROP 2/19/18 DP 13-0-0-0
3rd Read 2/21/18 51-7-2
Prepared by Senate Research
March 19, 2018
CS/BR/lat