Kathleen Kroll
Court Funding

lorida trial court officials plan to handle future budget cuts with layoffs rather than furloughing employees for weeks without pay.

The state Trial Court Budget Commission, which is made up of members of all 20 judicial circuits, met last week to formulate a plan to deal with a projected budget shortfall that already has state agencies scrimping.

A hiring freeze and travel ban imposed earlier this year in a budget-saving move have been extended indefinitely, said State Courts Administrator Lisa Goodner.

The commission splintered when considering whether to absorb fresh cuts with layoff or furloughs.

“A lot of people saw furloughs as a way to make a statement and layoffs is taking it again,” said Palm Beach Chief Judge Kathleen Kroll, who attended the meeting.

The commission has not determined how many people would have to be laid off or when, but state agencies are operating with a 4 percent budget holdback.

“Obviously, they’re taking every precaution they possibly can to conserve resources with the hope that there will ultimately be some relief,” Goodner said.

Goodner’s office is still calculating the cost of accrued sick leave and vacation time owed to people laid off when 222 positions were eliminated statewide June 30, Kroll said.

Goodner estimated there could be as many as 200 more positions eliminated statewide on top of budget cuts imposed during the spring legislative session.

She said the commission hopes staff reductions won’t be at the level currently predicted.

Talk of future cuts came after Gov. Charlie Crist’s office alerted state agencies in mid-June that the state would hold back 1 percent of general revenue each quarter starting July 1. Normally, agencies receive 25 percent of general revenue each quarter. This year, they are getting only 24 percent.

The same thing happened last year, but the holdback turned into a budget cut when the money disappeared for good.

Chief judges griped last week that the budget cuts hurt the judiciary more than the pubic or the Legislature understood, Kroll said.

Since judges as constitutional officers could not be laid off, the rest of the court system was more directly impacted by these cuts.

Kroll said future layoffs will harm public access to the court system. She said the commission discussed the need for an independent funding source so that the third branch of government is not operating at the whim of the Legislature. No source has been identified.

“Every time they take away a court interpreter, we’ll run out and find someone to interpret,” she said. “If they take away your assistant, we’ll say we’ll have a court reporter do that, too. When will that stop? When will we go, ‘No, that’s enough’?”

During the 4˝-hour meeting, the commission also made recommendations to new Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince about setting up a plan to deal with the upcoming shortfall as head of the judicial branch.

“The purpose of the meeting was to develop from the trial courts a recommendation to [Quince] as to what type of release plan she should file,” Goodner said.

Quince is scheduled to file a release plan, which would specify how the judicial branch wants its money released each quarter, with the state Department of Financial Services by Aug. 1, according to Goodner.

Quince was not available for an interview and did not respond to questions sent by e-mail.

Quince said at the meeting that she has made court funding her top priority, and she plans to set up a meeting with the executive and legislative branches to find a way to avert a funding crisis, according to Goodner.

To meet the $11.5 million salary reduction imposed by the Legislature on trial courts statewide, Miami-Dade Circuit Court laid off 14 employees and eliminated 14 vacant jobs, Broward courts laid off 11 administrative employees and halved the workload of a general magistrate and her secretary, and Palm Beach courts laid off nine workers.

The cuts would have been worse, but higher fees for 144 court filings are expected to raise $121 million in new money statewide this year.

The state commission gave chief judges limited flexibility in deciding where to make cuts to ensure a similar level of services statewide. Court administrators, case managers, law clerks, general magistrates and their support staffs were targeted.

The commission barred reducing the staff in any single area by more than two-thirds and set a maximum number of job losses in any section.

For future layoffs, Kroll said the commission will give circuits more flexibility as long as they don’t eliminate a whole category.

Civil traffic hearing officers are getting an especially hard look. Goodner said the commission wanted to take nearly $1.3 million designated for them and devote it to other salaries. The commission would have to get approval to transfer the money for traffic hearing officers and other operating categories into salaries.

Kroll said she doesn’t know what will happen in the long term to traffic officers, trained lawyers who handle minor traffic cases in place of county judges.

Traffic courts are important because they bring in revenue and keep police officers on the streets instead of answering subpoenas for traffic cases, she said.

The Palm Beach County Commission has funded a gap in traffic court funding through October, and Kroll hopes that will continue.

Jordana Mishory can be reached at (954) 468-2616.