Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed Senate Bill 1202, which sets the State Public Defender 2026 budget at $83 million.

The 2026 budget – the first one to fund 12 months of operation – will allow the State Public Defender office to continue developing our client-centered and unified approach to indigent defense across the state while raising the hourly rates for contract and conflict attorneys from $100 to $125 to improve coverage in Idaho’s remote and rural areas.

The budget adds $6.4 million in merit-based salary increases for attorneys and staff in our 12 county-based institutional offices, to increase pay for attorneys who handle complex litigation – and make those wages competitive with similar government agencies, like the Idaho Attorney General’s Office.

The budget allows us to establish new institutional offices in Shoshone, Benewah, Jerome, and Elmore counties, which will provide much-needed representation for indigent Idahoans and release some of the pressure on the contract attorneys in those areas.

The SPD began operation on Oct. 1, 2025. The initial budget was $52 million, and it covered our first nine months, from Oct.1 to June 30.

Our agency instantly became the largest law office in Idaho. Since Oct. 1, the SPD has been assigned to represent indigent Idahoans in more than 39,000 criminal cases. Of those, 9,300 cases require a contract attorney, and over 4,500 require a conflict attorney.

It didn’t take long to figure out we needed to increase our initial budget to take on that workload.

Since then, State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen and staff have been working with county officials, legislators, members of the judiciary, and the governor’s office on issues with public defense this budget appropriation takes head-on.

We want to thank Gov. Brad Little and his staff, who have championed our agency and supported a budget increase from day 1 of the Legislative session.

We also want to thank Rep. Dustin Manwaring, Sen. Kevin Cook, Rep. Jon Weber, Sen. Todd Lakey, and multiple other legislators for working diligently with our agency since October to find the right balance to keep public defense in Idaho moving forward.

They understood we needed additional funding to help us keep the excellent public defenders we have now and give those attorneys financial incentives to stay as they gain experience.

We are now able to reward our more experienced attorneys with a merit-based increase and recruit attorneys to bolster our county office rosters with competitive pay rates. Our new pay matrix takes into account job duties and skill set, which rewards attorneys who take on more complex and demanding cases and encourages professional development.

Raising the hourly rate for contractors from $100 to $125 should help us retain our current group of private attorneys and recruit more. The rate for contracted investigators has gone up from $65 to $85. Investigators provide essential support for contract attorneys.

The 2026 budget also contains a supplemental request that will allow the salary and contract rates to go into effect before July 1, which should relieve pressure on contract attorneys across Idaho. 

The budget also adds funding for public defense in Child Protection Act cases and to cover the cost of court transcripts. Review the 2026 budget here.