ID: paying the overhead

From the Burley / Rupert South Idaho Press:

Public defenders, boiler hit Minidoka budget

Minidoka County Commissioners and Fifth District Judge Barry Wood discussed on Friday possible solutions to the county’s shrinking pool of attorneys willing to serve as public defenders... (P)art of the problem is an increasing number of court cases in which a public defender is required... But Wood said fewer and fewer attorneys are willing to take cases as public defenders because the county pays just $55 per hour, a fraction of what attorneys make on private cases...

But finding room in the existing budget to raise public defenders’ pay may be just as difficult, as commissioners learned the courthouse boiler has sprung a leak and may have to be replaced to the tune of about $20,000...