HB 2479 Summary

• Establishes the "State Aid for Juvenile Dependency Proceedings Fund" administered by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission to provide financial assistance to county public defenders, legal defenders, and contract indigent defense counsel for processing juvenile dependency cases.

• Makes monies in the fund continuously appropriated and exempt from lapsing provisions, with investment earnings credited back to the fund.

• Requires the Commission to distribute fund monies to qualifying counties by September 1 of each fiscal year based on whether their three-year average juvenile dependency case filings exceed the baseline from fiscal years 2011-2014, distributed proportionally by county population.

• Appropriates $2,000,000 from the state general fund in fiscal year 2020-2021 to establish the fund, with this appropriation also exempt from lapsing provisions.

• Updates references from "Department of Economic Security" to "Office of Economic Opportunity" and makes technical corrections to existing statutes relating to state aid distribution formulas.