BiU To Help The County With North Star Costs Passes House SALT LAKE CITY Rep. Tom Hatch, (R-Dist. 73) reported Monday the successful passage of House Bill 80 which will help Garfield County with state funds up to $200,000 for expenses associated with prosecuting the North Star case and providing public defenders for its defendants. The bill passed with only two dissenting votes, 69-2, with four members absent. Hatch, who filed the bill in October 1995, said that the bill will be carried through the senate by Senator Leonard Blackburn. It should take only a couple of weeks for the bill to get through, said Hatch." Hatch, who lives in Panguitch, is a former Garfield County commissioner who understands the limited budget on which the county operates. The bill must go to committee before reaching the floor for vote, but Hatch anticipates no delays in getting it through. He explained that the special funds are a one-time-only appropriation appro-priation and will apply only to Garfield County under the special terms of the bill, designed to help with the unusual expenses involved in indigent defense. Hatch said that the bill is written so that it provides the funds only when a county exceeds by a minimum of 1,000 percent a base of $10,000 in indigent defense outlay as has happened with Garfield County in the North Star situation. Because the state can't give the funds directly to the county, they will be disbursed through the state attorney general's office in Salt lake City which is jointly prosecuting the case. The county has the potential poten-tial to be reimbursed for any moneys already spent on the case, providing future expenses do not exceed the cap of $200,000, but county commissioners are concerned con-cerned that even the $200,000 may not cover the ultimate costs of Ihe already expensive trial. t