by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Like the bad penny that always shows up, the State’s restructure of its trial court finances has again reared its head in Duval County. The revision, as currently drafted, will cost the City $8 million next year, City budget analysts say, and will chew a hole in a $3 million trust fund intended to outfit the county’s new courthouse.
In a recent presentation to the City Council’s Finance Committee, the City’s policy chief, Steve Diebenow, said Revision 7 to Article 5 of the State constitution, would deprive the county of permitting fees expected to generate hundreds of thousands annually. That money was to replenish the courthouse trust fund, which will supplement City money in paying cost overruns.
The $3 million fund was to be continuously replenished by a $25 City–imposed filing fee on criminal cases — the civil fee was to be $5. However, the City will lose the ability to assess those fees July 1 when the State takes over court funding.
“The trust fund was expected to regenerate, but it’s not increasing any more because of Article 5,” said Diebenow, explaining to the Council why the mayor needed another $20 million to finish the courthouse. “The State has basically swept away the funding source for it.”
Diebenow said the $8 million loss the City is likely to take next year as a result of Article 5 — due largely to a $7 million loss in State revenue sharing — hit the City’s books particularly hard, because an economic windfall was expected.
“When these changes were being discussed, it was suggested with a wink and a nod that we would get something like a $20 million windfall. It turned into an $8 million loss in reality,” said Diebenow. “One of our legislative priorities is to fix Article 5, because, in reality, it’s going to cost us money.”
Brad Thoburn, the City’s director of state and federal affairs, said the windfall projections assumed an even distribution of extra revenue across the State’s counties. Instead, urban areas came up short he said. Duval County in particular may have been hampered by the efficiency of its Clerk of Courts Office.
Because the Duval clerk was able to keep costs relatively low, the county was shorted when the legislature doled out funding statewide.
“When people talked about windfalls, they looked at the state as a whole,” said Thoburn. “They looked at the whole, total gain to counties; it didn’t work out that way.”
When the State cut back revenue sharing, Thoburn said they underestimated how much money the courts generated. He agreed with Diebenow that working with Tallahassee to fix the legislation will be one of his top priorities. He said he hoped the legislature would recognize the weaknesses and would be willing to compromise.
“I certainly hope that’s the approach the State takes,” said Thoburn. “There wasn’t any devious scheme here, they were being cautious; if they were going to make an error, they were going to err to the benefit of the State.
“If we can fix revenue sharing, that’s $7 million right there. Beyond that, it’s just a couple tweaks and we’re made whole.”
The legislative and bookkeeping headaches aren’t just a local problem. Chief Judge Stan Morris, whose 8th Circuit includes Gainesville, gave an hour–long presentation last week on the revision’s shortfalls. He used Duval County’s filing–fee loss to illustrate the problem.
Morris said he originally supported the revision. He thought it would benefit poorer circuits, whose smaller caseloads don’t generate revenue like their urban counterparts. Instead, the revision stripped money from circuits that have shown historically to be among the State’s busiest, said Morris.
“What they basically said to us was, ‘History is history, you have to prove your needs right now,’ ” said Morris.
“What this legislation would like to do is revisit the judicial system, recast it in a different light. Every element we have to prove to the legislature what we need and then wonder to what degree are they going to fund them?”
Morris said the Legislature was unaware of a court’s hidden processes; the unseen infrastructure necessary for a court to function. He said running a court goes beyond shuttling people in and out of the courtroom. There’s paperwork to be done, logistical concerns like securing parking for jurors and organizing a docket.
“Over there, across the street [the State Legislature] they see me come to court, put on a robe, call the first person, yell at them, and they think the next person just magically appears, I yell at them and I hang up my robe and go home. But there’s a lot more work being done outside of the courtroom to make everything run like that.”
Morris said he would also work with the Legislature to secure changes. He said it would take a concentrated effort from judges and county representatives. Told of Duval County’s plans to lobby for change, he nodded approvingly.
“That’s good,” he said, pointing from the State’s Supreme Court to the adjacent Capitol. “Because I’m having a hard time getting across the realities of the court system to those people across the street.”