California courts fear the pinch from proposed cuts

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2012/05/17/MNDP1OIGOI.DTL

Bob Egelko

Thursday, May 17, 2012

San Francisco's courts have cut their staff by 31 percent since 2008. Eleven of the 63 civil courtrooms at 400 McAllister St. have been closed since October, when an emergency infusion of state funds averted a much larger shutdown. People have to wait one to three hours in line to pay their traffic tickets.

That was before Gov. Jerry Brown proposed cuts of $544 million to the state's courts on Monday as part of a plan to make up California's $16 billion deficit.

"We're rationing justice," Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the leader of the state Supreme Court and the nation's largest judicial system, said the next day.

After four consecutive years of state funding reductions totaling $653 million, she said, courts up and down the state have shuttered civil courtrooms that hear disputes over child custody, mortgages and layoffs. Repairs of aging, unsafe courthouses have been postponed. Clerks' offices where people file legal papers are closing early. Services for those who can't afford lawyers, like self-help kiosks for family law, have been reduced.

If the Legislature approves Brown's court funding proposal, Cantil-Sakauye said, "the bottom is going to fall out. We've done all that we can."

Two-tier justice

It will also further the trend toward two-tier justice, she said, in which the wealthy bypass public civil courts in favor of private arbitration, which works much faster and more secretively. "Those who can will opt out of our system," the chief justice said.

Brown's announcement was a blow to a judiciary that appeared to have avoided a major hit when the governor unveiled his 2012-13 budget in January. It included a $125 million reduction in court funding, but that would have taken effect only if voters rejected Brown's initiative in November to increase income and sales taxes.

The governor proposed $8.3 billion in cuts to help close a $15.7 billion gap between revenue and expenses for California's fiscal year that begins July 1.

The largest amount, nearly $2.5 billion, would come from health and welfare programs. Courts, which make up less than 2.5 percent of the budget, would get a $544 million hit - $125 million in permanent reductions, $419 million in one-time losses - regardless of the November vote.

The governor said the cuts would require trial courts in the 58 counties to spend $300 million from their reserves, more than half the current total, and shelve 33 scheduled court construction projects, including a criminal courthouse in Santa Rosa and a family court building in San Jose. Court employees would also have to increase their retirement contributions.

The reductions would leave an overall judicial budget of $3.6 billion.

San Francisco Superior Court, which used its reserves in recent years to avert large-scale layoffs, has built a $7 million reserve fund that would be wiped out by the governor's proposal, said court spokeswoman Ann Donlan.

Different than agencies

Unlike state agencies, courts can't turn to the state treasury when money runs short or funding sources dry out, and they count on reserves to make sure they can keep their doors open and meet their payroll, said San Francisco Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein.

"By eliminating reserves, they're eliminating access to justice," she said.

The impact of court funding reductions will vary statewide, in contrast to 2009-10, when the state Judicial Council ordered all courts closed one day a month for nine months to close a $100 million budget gap. The council could not order a statewide closure now because its legislative authority to do so has expired, but Cantil-Sakauye said, "I fear we will be having de facto and patchwork closures up and down the state."

She summoned council members to a meeting Thursday in Sacramento to discuss the budget. Brown's finance director, Ana Matosantos, is scheduled to be the first speaker.

Insurgent judges

The budget announcement also prompted the insurgent Alliance of California Judges to aim a new volley of criticism at the state's judicial leaders. The alliance, formed in 2009, has accused Cantil-Sakauye and her predecessor, Ronald George, of wasting money on a proposed statewide computer system and usurping local courts' decision-making authority.

"Years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities" by the Judicial Council and its administrative arm "have caused not only a budget crisis, but a crisis in confidence," the alliance said, urging legislative passage of a bill that would shift budget authority from the state council to local courts.

Edited May 18, 2012 by Why_Me

[Leatherneck 693]

But moonbeam is pushing ahead with the high speed rail project.

[luckytxn 2,265]

But moonbeam is pushing ahead with the high speed rail project.

Texas has decided to also build a high speed rail between Houston and Dallas. I guess we might as well waste as much money as the Feds do. It is only money and more can be printed.