Once again, courts are concerned about budget cuts 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, January 25, 2010
By Patrick Thornton

Last year Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson drove to the corners of the state to rally support against proposed cuts to the courts’ budget. And it worked. The justice system was spared from the significant cuts experienced by such areas as health care and education.

With projections showing another major budget shortfall this year and the Legislature set to convene on Feb. 4, Magnuson may soon need to gas up the car and dig out the road map from the glove compartment.

The state faces at least a $1.2 billion deficit for the remainder of the 2010-11 biennium — and that number could grow exponentially following Judge Kathleen Gearin’s ruling earlier this month that Gov. Tim Pawlenty overstepped his constitutional authority when he unalloted funding for a nutritional program for the elderly and disabled. (The Minnesota Supreme Court last week granted an expedited appeal in the case.)

The cut to the program was a small part of a package of unallotments made by the governor to erase a multi-billion-dollar deficit left at the end of the last legislative session.

Gearin’s ruling potentially opens the floodgates to future lawsuits from other groups that lost state money through unallotment. Successful challenges to those unallotments could add billions to the deficit — and put court funding — which escaped last session with a modest 1 percent cut — back in jeopardy.

“It’s not clear at this point if that funding will remain in place,” said John Kostouros, the communications director for the state court system. “We’ve got our fingers crossed that we can retain the budget we have.”

Even putting aside the unallotment uncertainty, early forecasts project a $5 billion deficit for the next budget cycle — a fiscal situation that has cast a shadow over all state-funded entities, including the judiciary.

Less state money would mean layoffs and reduction of services to the public, Kostouros said.

The judicial branch is one of the most personnel-intensive parts of state government. About 85 percent of the courts’ budget is spent on salaries and benefits for its approximately 2,700 employees.

Budget cuts over the last several years have already left the courts understaffed. A number of counties have gone to reduced hours at the public service windows in the courthouses, including Hennepin County as a way to save money.

“The quality of service to Minnesotans has already started to suffer,” Kostouros said. “We’ve had several cuts the last three [budget cycles] and we are seeing delays in processing cases and reduced public service hours in many courthouses across the state.”

Pilot programs such as one in Hennepin County that will allow attorneys to e-file civil cases online would not be expanded statewide. The state’s drug courts and other initiatives aimed at reducing recidivism are other likely targets for reductions if more cuts come down, Kostouros said.

More streamlining?

Legislators don’t have much good news to share with the courts, other state agencies or Minnesotans when it comes to appropriations.

Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, chairs the House Public Safety Finance Division, which works with the Senate Judiciary Committee to compile a budget for the courts. Paymar said his party’s leadership hasn’t told him his committee’s bottom line yet, but he is not optimistic.

“At least until we are out of this recession the public’s expectations about what they get out of their government will have to be lowered,” he said. “We are at a place right now where we can’t just cut or just tax our way out of this. This is a major dilemma and we will have to do things differently. That means the courts too.”

In past years, the courts have dealt with funding cuts in a number of ways, including imposing hiring freezes and waiting to fill some judicial vacancies. Additionally, some court fees have been raised to offset cuts.

Paymar said that if the state continues that course, justice will no longer be affordable or readily available to the people who use the courts.

While the judicial system has already taken steps to streamline and make the delivery of services more efficient through technology and other cooperative efforts, those plans may be derailed by funding cuts because they require heftier upfront investments before they pay off in the long run, Paymar warned. He noted a program that works with families of murder victims as a likely victim of budget cuts.

“Some of the impact of all this won’t be felt until much later,” he said. “But if you want to file a discrimination suit against your boss, and it takes twice as long to get heard, … it’s going to impact you.”

Rethinking justice

Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that this is a good time for a conversation about several key questions facing the courts.

One question Moua wants to focus on is the expectations of the court system. The caseload volumes and demands on the courts have steadily increased and, with the staffing cuts in recent years, the courts have been forced to do more with less. Now is the time to look at ways to do things differently, she said.

“One of my interests is going to be to rethink what we mean when we say a ‘good outcome’ in the courts,” she told Minnesota Lawyer. “There are different ways to measure that. Does that mean meeting a goal of 50 people a day in front of a judge for three minutes? Or are there other goals we should consider? Let’s look at the different areas that generate work for the courts and work on a plan that deals with this question of a ‘good outcome.’”

Moua said some important areas in the court system were overlooked last year and she wants to revisit them in 2010. Specifically, she wants to dedicate time to family law, juvenile justice and some ethical questions surrounding the state’s use of criminal intelligence databases in law enforcement.

Even with the budget deficit and uncertain economy, there is work to do, Moua said.

“In years with budget problems some really good public policy decisions have been made,” Moua said. “The deficit … doesn’t mean we have to be paralyzed as far as what we do.”