Here’s the follow up from yesterday’s hearing in House Appropriations. The court’s budget request is in line with the governor’s proposal for 2012. The request is a budget of $39,348, 918. As all budgets in departments and branches do, it contains a line item labeled “vacancy turnover savings”. That line should total $2,999,180 in order to make the budget meet its target. The court, however, said it would fall short of that target by $167, 180. That shortfall is a result of the restructuring bill of 2010 (H.470) which was not fully funded. The largest part of the savings line-$1,113,000- comes from the 12 furlough days the court has scheduled for FY12. So, we know that each court day costs about $100,000. Justice Dooley told the Appropriations Committee that if the court could add anything to the budget it would be to “buy back” some court closing days.


There was much discussion of the results of restructuring and its effect on staffing. Bob Greemore told the committee that before restructuring the judiciary had 356 state funded positions and 43 county paid positions for a total of 399 employees. Now it has 358 positions, all paid for by state funds. Most of the county staff merged into the state employee pool with a few exceptions: 2 resigned; 19 took voluntary retirement; and 5 were demoted into lower positions than they previously held. None were laid off.

As far as filling vacancies go, it is unlikely that an authorized judicial spot that has never been filled will be anytime soon. There are open positions in Windham County (probate register) and one in Chittenden (caseload coordinator). The position held by recently retired Judge Katz will likely not be filled before July 1 at the earliest if then.

Bennington County Assistant Judge Jim Colvin will be addressing both Judiciary Committees later this morning about the AJ’s report on restructuring; I’m planning to get to both presentations and will update you later. Don’t forget that tonight is the second and last public hearing on the retention of the justices of the Supreme Court as well as Judges Cortland Corsones, Robert Bent and Jon Wesley. It’s at 7PM in Room 11.

Two bills of interest will be introduced today. The first, H. 327 is the uniform principal and income act. The second, H.325, amends the procedure for small claims. Here is its statement of purpose:

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes a number of measures intended to simplify and reduce the costs associated with small claims procedures. The bill proposes to require that: (1) the plaintiff send a demand letter to the defendant specifying the amount of compensation sought before filing a small claims lawsuit in court; (2) the summons to the defendant include the date of the initial court hearing, which must be at least 21 days after the date that the summons is served; (3) the defendant be served with the summons and complaint, although all subsequent transmissions of documents in the case may be sent to the defendant by first class mail; and (4) the court enter default judgment for the plaintiff if a defendant who has been served with notice of the lawsuit fails to appear at the hearing.

This one is brand new to me; I’ll see where it goes from here.