Imagine waking up one day and all court-sponsored mediation programs had been eliminated; drug court case managers and civil traffic hearing officers are not at their posts; law libraries are closed or their hours greatly reduced; and fewer senior judges are available to hear cases.
That’s the scenario Florida faces if the court system is forced to trim 10 percent from its budget to help the state make up for a $1 billion or so shortfall legislators plan to address during the special session set to begin Sept. 18.
“A 10 percent cut of the judicial branch budget produces concerns for the ability of our citizens to access this court system and have disputes resolved in a timely manner,” Chief Justice Fred Lewis wrote to the governor, House speaker, and Senate president. “Our operations simply would be significantly impaired to an unacceptable level.”
Gov. Charlie Crist has asked all state agencies and branches to prepare for 10 percent cuts, with a minimum 4 percent reduction in spending likely.
“While we have complied with what they have asked us to do, we have tried to identify the types of reduction we believe we can take given the fiscal environment of the state -— not what we want to do, but we certainly are willing to do — given the constraints that the state faces,” said State Courts Administrator Lisa Goodner.
Significant budget reductions for state attorneys and public defenders also would cut deep, especially considering about 95 percent of those entities’ budgets are allocated to salaries and benefits.
“We would then be forced to eliminate existing positions and vacant FTE positions we desperately need,” said 13th Circuit State Attorney Mark Ober, president of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association. “Shrinking the number of prosecutors in Florida, where caseload rates are already among the highest in the country, would prove contrary to the best interests of our state.”
Goodner said Chief Justice Lewis plans to attend the House and Senate committee meetings being held in advance of the special session the last week in August (after this News went to press) to discuss the proposed reductions and their impact on the courts.
“He will be leading the charge in terms of what we feel we can reasonably do to help and be part of the overall sacrifice that needs to be made when you get into these bad revenue times, but at the same time help people to understand why reductions that go to the 10 percent level, given the constitutional functions the courts perform, would be very troubling and difficult for us to take,” said Goodner.
In any event, Goodner said the courts are prepared to make a strong case to keep as much of its funding as possible.
In preparing for the special session, Goodner said the courts have limited any proposed reductions so that they do not include judges, judicial assistants, or law clerks.
“All the judges working on this feel strongly that in order for the courts to perform its most basic constitutional role of adjudicating cases, you have got to have those resources,” said Goodner.
A 10 percent reduction at the trial court level would mean a cut of $38 million, said Goodner, adding that the trial courts tried to identify reductions that were more in the 4 percent range that they believe can be made without impacting the ability of the courts to adjudicate cases.
To get there, Goodner said, the trial courts have proposed some cost-shifting that would pass along some current expenditures now paid through the state budget to the clerks of the courts, such as the payment of per diems to jurors.
“That is a $4.5 million issue that is funded through our budget but is right now a pass-through to the clerks, and we have proposed that they can pick that up,” said Goodner. “We also have asked the legislature to consider paying for some of the technology resources that the state does fund for the trial courts out of the $2 recording fee that is currently going to the clerks for their technology at the local level.”
— Courtesy The Florida Bar News