Office of State Public Defender requests $33.5M for 2027 biennium, seeks higher contract rate and 44-FTE plan to cut assignment delays

The Section D subcommittee of the 2025 Montana Legislature heard a budget presentation from the Office of State Public Defender (OPD) on a $33.5 million biennial request that the agency says would increase its base by about 34.6% compared with ongoing fiscal 2025 appropriations.

OPD Director Brett Schandelson, introduced the request as an effort to stabilize public defense operations after several years of shortfalls and turnover. “We believe this will be the most buttoned up budget we've produced for this committee's consideration,” Schandelson said, emphasizing data-driven calculations for the agency’s staffing and contracting needs.

Why it matters: The package includes a request to make a $12.5 million supplemental (contained in House Bill 3) ongoing, plus $600,000 to continue contracted attorney services that were one‑time-only in the 2025 biennium. The agency is also asking the Legislature to make ongoing a $1.5 million biennial (about $750,000 per year) allocation used in Yellowstone County to reduce a local backlog.

The request, and debate around it, focuses on three interconnected problems: an ongoing gap between legal work and available defenders (the agency’s shortfall metric), long waits to assign counsel in some courts, and a shortage or instability in the private contracting pool that the OPD relies on to cover overflow work.

Key elements of OPD’s request and testimony - Total request and composition: Mr. Hopkins, presenting budget figures for the committee, said the OPD’s 2027 biennium budget request totals $33,500,000, an increase driven largely by adding attorney positions and by…