Miscellaneous

Florida Budget Cuts: Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Why, it was just a few years ago that Florida courts went from county to state funding.

Remember the drill? All court services had to scramble to categorize themselves, all hoping for the coveted "essential court services" status to guarantee state funding.

Meanwhile, the counties picked up the slack.

Now, the state is out of money (this is what happens, states, when you rely on property taxes and the housing market goes under). Guess who gets to picks up even more slack?

Counties!

The state will no longer pay for witness or juror fees. The money will now come from the clerk's office.

Bay County, for example, estimates that they will spend $50,000 annually paying jurors their $15 - 30/day. Don't look for a juror pay raise there any time soon.

But do counties have the money to cover these costs?

No more than the state does. The sinking housing market has affected counties, too. Again, an example from Bay County: whenever a deed was recorded, the recording department collected a 1% fee. Not only have there been far fewer deeds recorded lately, the state eliminated the fee.

See State Budget Cuts to Hit Court System Hard, Kristy Wolski, WJHG (May 6, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).