Ken Starr’s $910 Hourly Fee Will be Paid, Ariz. Spokesman Says
The Arizona legislature is scrambling for a way to pay Kenneth Starr’s $910 an hour fee to defend the state’s spending on students who speak another language.
Starr was hired to seek a U.S. Supreme Court appeal after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held the state’s funding formula is inadequate under federal law, the Daily Dispatch reports.
The state Risk Management office said it would cap Starr’s pay at $335 an hour, the usual rate for outside lawyers in complex appeals. Starr is the former Whitewater special prosecutor, a former federal appeals judge and a former solicitor general. (He also served on the ABA Journal Board of Editors.) He is now the dean of Pepperdine law school.
A spokesman for House Speaker Jim Weiers said the legislature is trying to get the fees paid in two ways, the Associated Press reports.
Spokesman Barrett Marson said the first way is by providing more information to Risk Management and persuading the agency to pay Starr’s costs. Another option is for the legislature to use money from its own budget to supplement the payments.
Marson said Starr’s expertise is worth the expense since a court loss could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
