I attended the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Justice and Public Safety today where they heard a review of the Governor’s Budget adjustments, the agency response, and the Senate Target and Subcommittee 5% Reduction Option List.
The Senate Appropriations Chairs have given the Appropriations Subcommittees rules for budget process including a rule that the subcommittees not include any requests for expansion items at the time, but for very limited circumstances which center on job creation outside state government.
The 5% reduction target equates to a $109 million cut from the certified JPS budget. This represents a $47 million cut from the Governor’s proposed budget.
The Senate options list includes some of the Governor’s suggested cuts as well as many other cuts. Generally the cuts include eliminating positions that have been vacant six months or longer, equipment reductions, and administrative budget reductions. Specifically, for the Court System, the cuts include eliminating vacant positions in the central administration offices, changing the ratio of Assistant District Attorneys to support staff from 1.5:1 to 2.5:1, reductions in technology programs, reductions in funding for the District Attorney’s conference, the elimination of vacant district attorney and clerk positions, and a 5% reduction to administration. Overall the Senate JPS subcommittee is considering $19 million in cuts to the Courts total budget of $464 million.
The Administrative Office of the Courts has completed workload studies where they have validated that local courts are short more than 1,000 personnel. The AOC has indentified more than $20 million in potential new revenue from new and expanded fees, but none were included in the Governor’s budget and were not discussed at the Senate subcommittee today.
In a letter from Judge John Smith, AOC Director, he notes that the courts have reverted more than $26 million in the past fiscal year. Judge Smith notes that these reversions have required the Courts to maintain a historically high number of vacancies in ADA, deputy clerk, magistrate, and other court field staff. The Governor’s budget staff asked each agency for cuts at the 3,5, and 7 percent level and Judge Smith’s letter indicated that they had none to offer, but did submit an expansion request for $75.2 million for 1,059 new positions based on the aforementioned workload study.
