By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County Commissioners did receive some good budgeting
news&emdash;the Indigent Capital Defense Trust Fund will not
need as large an assessment from Juab County from the 2001
budget.
"The decision has been made by the Indigent Defense Funds
Board to keep the fund balance at approximately $500,000,"
said David Leavitt, county attorney.
"I sit on the board," said Leavitt, "and it was decided
that the county would need to be assessed $952 for the
coming year."
Since the budget for the trust fund was at the
approximate $500,000 mark, the member counties would not
need to pay as high an assessment as they did last year.
Last year, said Leavitt, Juab County paid $3,806. The
$952 assessment represented 25 percent of last year's
allocation. The county had been assessed 50 cents per person
for a population number estimated at 7,973. That population
figure was adopted from the governor's planning and budget
office Utah Population Estimates Committee.
Twenty-three counties are participants in the Indigent
Capital Defense Trust Fund.
"The full amount of the fund collected last year was not
used," said Leavitt. "Therefore, the fund does not need as
large a contribution from each county in order to have the
adequate fund balance."
"It's too bad that the savings (for Juab County) isn't
larger," said Wm. Boyd Howarth, commission chair. "We could
put the money to good use."
The Indigent Capital Defense Trust Fund was a place,
however, where the benefit was more than worth the cost, he
said.
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