§ 5239. Public Defender Special Fund

(a) The Public Defender Special Fund is hereby created. All co-payments, reimbursements, and assignment fees paid by persons receiving representation under this chapter, as well as all amounts recovered pursuant to section 5255 of this title and 23 V.S.A. § 1210(j), shall be deposited in the Fund.

(b) The Special Fund created by subsection (a) of this section shall be organized and managed as follows:

(1) The Fund shall be managed on the State Central Accounting System under the control of the Commissioner of Finance and Management with the actual monies held under the authority and responsibility of the State Treasurer.

(2) [Repealed.]

(3) All interest earned by the Fund shall be credited to the General Fund.

(4) All monies to be expended from the Fund shall be appropriated annually by the General Assembly, or allocated pursuant to the authority granted by the General Assembly to the Commissioner of Finance and Management with regard to excess receipts.

(5) Expenditures from the Fund shall not exceed available revenues, except that the Commissioner of Finance and Management may anticipate receipts to the Fund and issue warrants based thereon, and in so doing may establish limits on expenditures in anticipation of receipts.

(6) All cash balances in the Fund at the end of the fiscal year shall be carried forward and remain in the Fund unspent until authorized by the General Assembly.

(7) All monies remaining in the Fund when it is terminated shall revert to the General Fund.

(8) Any negative cash balance in the Fund at the end of a fiscal year shall be carried forward and applied against the Fund's receipts for the next fiscal year. (Added 1991, No. 231 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. May 28, 1992; amended 1993, No. 60, § 58, eff. May 28, 1993; 1993, No. 210 (Adj. Sess.), § 55, eff. June 17, 1994; 1995, No. 77 (Adj. Sess.), § 10, eff. Mar. 21, 1996; 2009, No. 67 (Adj. Sess.), § 85, eff. Feb. 25, 2010; 2011, No. 56, § 8, eff. May 31, 2011.)