ALBANY — A bill that would provide fiscal relief for counties to provide indigent legal services is currently waiting to be signed by the governor. The bill would also set caseload standards to ensure better legal representation for poor people.

The legislation was introduced by State Senator John A. DeFrancisco and Assemblymember Patricia A. Fahy a little less than a year ago. The bill passed the State Assembly and State Senate in June of this year with bipartisan support — DeFrancisco is a Republican and Fahy is a Democrat — and was delivered to the governor’s desk on Dec. 20.

Colin Brennan, deputy press secretary for the governor’s office, said in an email Wednesday night that the bill is currently under review by the Counsel’s office.

Brennan told The Enterprise that cost was one of the factors under consideration of the bill.

“If a decision gets made it will be before the end of the year,” he said to The Enterprise on Tuesday.

Each state sets up its own system for providing legal services to the poor. Currently, in New York, the counties are responsible for the service.

If signed into law, the bill would take effect April 2017, when the state would be required to reimburse at least 25 percent of county indigent legal services. In April 2018, this would increase to 35 percent, and then 45 percent in 2019, 55 percent in 2020, 65 percent in 2021, and 75 percent in 2022. Every year after, the state would fully reimburse county indigent legal service expenses.

Fahy, who just won a third two-year term representing the 109th District, which includes Bethlehem, Guilderland, New Scotland, and the western part of Albany, told The Enterprise on Tuesday she was hopeful that the bill would not be delayed.

“Call me crazy, but I’m optimistic,” she said.

Fahy said the bill would ensure better services for indigent defendants by creating a more reasonable caseload for public defenders. On Wednesday, she said that this could reduce pre-trial incarceration and possibly reduce costs of incarceration.

“In some counties, it’s not unusual for an attorney to have 600 caseloads,” she said.

The bill was propelled by an October 2014 settlement between the state and Suffolk, Washington, Ontario, Onondaga, and Schuyler counties to provide adequate legal services to the poor. The settlement was made the day before Hurrell-Harring, et al. v. State of New York  was to go to trial. The lawsuit, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, argued the state had failed to adequately fund its public-defense system.

Fahy was contacted by Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy about the issue following the settlement of the Hurrell-Harring case, she said; she was asked to look into funding needs for indigent legal services in all counties. A year later, she and DeFrancisco had introduced a bill in the state legislature.

“Some people have been working on this for 30 years,” she said.

Fahy noted that this issue goes back to the 1963 Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the high court ruled that the Sixth Amendment guarantees a right to counsel and that this ruling applies to the states.

“But New York decided to pass that cost onto the counties,” said Fahy. “Most states pick it up as a state cost,” she added.

Fahy added that most states, whether or not indigent legal services are county-funded, provide poor quality of services and overwhelm public defenders with caseloads.

This bill, which states that New York must take steps to improve its indigent legal services, would make the state a national leader in creating caseload standards, said Fahy. The five counties featured in the Hurrell-Harring case already are required to have standards set as by the settlement.

Fahy said on Tuesday that, if the bill does not pass by the end of the year, it could become a budget issue, but she added that could happen no matter what the bill’s fate is.

She explained that the counties could seek funding from the state’s budget if a law were not passed explicitly stating that New York must begin reimbursing counties for indigent legal services.

“So much of this is the cost,” said Fahy, echoing Brennan on resistance to passing the bill.

According to Fahy, rough estimates, which are not final, show that full funding of indigent legal services could cost the state as much as $500 million.

Still, Fahy remains optimistic.

“It’s important,” she concluded. “It could be really historic legislation.”