Opinion ID: 4533287
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Remaining Five Surcharges

Text: ¶21 Our analysis of the remaining five surcharges closely parallels that of the drug offender surcharge. We take up the restorative justice and rural surcharges first before turning to the genetic testing, victims assistance, and victim compensation surcharges. ¶22 The statute that sets forth the restorative justice surcharge and the statute that governs the rural surcharge contain mandatory language identical to that found in the drug offender surcharge statute. The restorative justice statute provides that “[e]ach person who is convicted of a crime . . . shall be required to pay a ten-dollar surcharge.” § 18-25-101(1) (emphasis added). The court may waive “all or any portion” of this surcharge only if it “finds that a person or juvenile is indigent or financially unable to pay all or any portion” of it. § 18-25-101(4). The rural statute states that “each drug offender and each alcohol- or drug-related offender who is convicted, or receives a deferred sentence . . . , shall be required to pay a surcharge.” § 18-19-103.5(1) (emphasis added). And, though the trial court 12 enjoys some discretion in selecting the amount of this surcharge—“not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars”—the court cannot decline to impose it entirely. Id. ¶23 For the same reason we concluded earlier that the statutory phrase “shall be required to pay” renders the drug offender surcharge mandatory, we now conclude that it also renders the restorative justice and rural surcharges mandatory. And just as the waiver provision in the drug offender surcharge statute did not alter our analysis of the drug offender surcharge, the waiver provision in the restorative justice statute does not change the mandatory nature