April 6, 2015

I apologize for having been silent on events in the legislature for the month of March. Due to a death in the family I spent the month in New York. VBA President Dan Richardson covered for me and devoted more time to our presence in the statehouse that he expected when he became President. The following summary on the judiciary funding issue is his.

As you all may already know, the House Appropriations Committee passed H. 490 two weeks ago that did three things affecting our conversation: 1) it created a study group that will work this summer to look to see how systematic changes can create the savings sought by the legislature and the administration; 2) It cut $500,000 from the judiciary’s budget but restored it for FY 16 with one-time money equal to $500,000; and 3) it implemented the proposed $600,000 pay act cut and the $900,000 in underfunding of existing judiciary obligations.  Notwithstanding these cuts, the partial restoration of funds and the study group felt like a big lift from the house that was, as I explained at the last meeting, just ready to slash the budget and let the judiciary deal with it.  These changes reflect a lot of efforts on the VBA’s part and on members’ part to persuade legislators of the problems. 

Whether these cuts will stay in the Senate’s version is less clear.  Last week, I testified in Senate Judiciary, and the Committee seemed supportive of walking back these cuts.  Senator Tim Ashe, in particular, was upset with the idea that the $500,000 being called “bridge funding.”  As he put it, a bridge is supposed to take you across that chasm and not drop you in the middle. 

The Judiciary is not happy with the budget because of the $500,000 cut to their base budget, which without this year’s one-time funding will become a hole for them next year and every year thereafter to fill or cut.  In other words, the Judiciary understands that the one-time funding allows them to dodge a bullet this year, but it comes with a price tag that any budget discussion next starts with a base budget at this lower amount.  That means, the Judiciary, under the House bill, has less than one-year to come up with a permanent $500,000 cut to its budget for next year’s budget process.   

More importantly, the $1.5 Million in cuts to the pay act and from the underfunding remain, which pose a serious problem for the Court beginning July 1st.  The Judiciary’s remaining focus for the year is to undo the $500,000 cut (more semantics than actual money swapping since the money is already there for FY16) and to fight to restore the $600,000 through a mixture of fee increases and restoration of some pay act funds.  If successful, that would keep the Judiciary where they are now, underfunded and relying on vacancy savings but able to fund its current operations.  As I pointed out to Pat Gabel, the Chief, and Judge Grearson the problem is that now the Administration and the House are lined up behind this budget and the Judiciary will not only have to persuade the Senate to disagree these cuts but take the fight to the house and the Administration.  It is a tall order.

The judiciary is supportive of the summer study/working group.

Despite opposition, the videoconferencing arraignment pilot project looks like it will be going forward.  The House bill provides funding for a pilot project, and the Judiciary has begun to move forward.  They have also heard the message from several corners, including the VBA, that they need to work with the various partners on this project. 

The big news according to Pat is that the Administration has made it very clear that they want the long-term cuts to come from courthouse closures.  Pat has stated in no uncertain terms that the Court does not support closing courthouses and will fight to keep them open, but that the Administration sees closing some courthouses as a necessary budget cut.  Pat reported to me that the Administration made no bones about it, and that they would keep the budget pressure on the Judiciary until it closes courthouses.  The important thing to keep in mind is that when we are talking about closing courthouses, we are also talking about laying off the court staff.

Judge Grearson is making out next year’s trial court rotation schedule, and he reported that with the four current vacancies unlikely to be completely filed by September 1st, the rotation schedule is going to have a lot of holes in it.  These gaps will largely fall to the civil docket as resources will have to go to family and criminal.  Even if the Governor makes new appointments, the new judges will take time to close their practices and receive training.  Grearson estimates a 4 to 6 month process to put the new judges on the bench, hearing cases, after the appointments are made. On top of this, Judge Grearson indicated that there might be more vacancies coming in the late summer/early fall.  So this is a problem that may get worse before it gets better.