Kentucky

Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen has been inaccurately credited with the saying "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money"?

However, it is nonetheless a truism, just as it is easier to save a penny than earn a penny.

With that lead-in, I move to stories regarding the budget crunches and shortfalls.  Too many agencies, too little money, and too many sacred cows.

With that you got to have some empathy for Chief Justice Minton who must either get more money for the AOC or tighten the belt.  In any event, the task that has befallen him is a daunting one, with recent news stories attacking the courthouse spending boom, putative irregularities in the courthouse construction contracting, judicial hires at the AOC with felony arrests in their record, and the senior status judges program increasing daily as it approaches its sunset date.

Well, my hat goes off to Chief Justice Minton and his six supporting but silent justices meeting with Interim Joint Judiciary Committee and predicting dire consequences if the $37.8 million budget shortfall for the courts is not eliminated. If $15 million is for opening new judicial centers and apparently 88 per cent of the operating budget is tied to personnel in the courts, then what is a judicial body to do?  And since that story aired, the governor has reported a possible doubling of the shortfall, so as the Chief was seeking more money, the situation was going from bad to worse as 2010 approaches with no extra money in sight. See, eg.,Gov. reveals 50% increase in budget deficit - Plans special session

Our courts our crowded, new courts are opening up, and costs are rising in the midst of a structurally unsound budget.  However, is the AOC's house in order as it goes to the lawmaker's house asking for a handout?

In today's recession and ever-shrinking tax dollars, wasteful and unnecessary programs are a pubic disservice.  The Chief Justice may have to take a close look at the senior status judge's program and whether the actual drain or the public's perception of the drain is a negative to hang onto while asking money for essential programs at the AOC.  Delaying judicial appointments to save a few dollars by not filling constitutionally created offices to be filled by a legislatively created by poor-conceived and marginally regulated senior status judges program is not a good solution.   Hiring freezes and letting non-essential personnel go is the usual plan for living within ones means, in business and in government. 

I can't read the tea leaves, but I suspect more and more government agencies are going to be complaining of loss of services to be necessitated by loss of budget dollars.  Those agencies who have looked long and hard and taken the hard steps to save money and provide service will probably deserve serious consideration when the time comes to balance the budget.

Stan Billingsley at Lawreader had probably the best reporting on the exchange at the meeting over the AOC shortfall at Chief Justice addresses Legislative Committee re: problems facing the Judiciary. 

Again, Buddy can you spare a dime?  However, doesn't anyone realize that asking for a dime from the legislature entails them raising a dime for an already strapped citizenry? 

Chief Justice Says Courts Face Deficit from WTVQ.com
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:10

Crowded court dockets and rising costs are putting Kentucky's court system in a financial pinch.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton warned lawmakers Tuesday that with current "continuation funding" the court system will face a $37.8 million deficit by July 2011, the start of the state's new budget cycle. "A budget that is structurally unsound," Minton told members of the Interim Joint Judiciary Committee.

In a very rare move, designed to show a willingness to cooperate with the legislative branch, Minton and the other six justices of the state's highest court appeared at the meeting. Only Minton testified.

"With 88 percent of the operating budget tied up in personnel it doesn't take long for those cuts to reach people," the Chief Justice told WTVQ 36 News after the meeting. Minton says without more money the court system would have to "greatly reduce expenditures" which could lead to cuts in staff and services.

Around 3,700 people work in the state's judicial system, including nearly 400 judges. The current two year budget is approximately $293 million. Senator Robert Stivers, (R) Manchester, co-chairman of the judiciary panel, suggested that balancing workloads could help save money. "I think some are under and some are over utilized," said Stivers.

The Chief Justice says changing Kentucky's judicial boundaries would be very difficult. "If there ever is, Senator, a sacred cow in the system, that would be it," said Minton.

Minton says there are no plans to slow projects to open new judicial centers, but that may happen if revenue cuts occur. Approximately $15 million of the projected $37.8 million shortfall is the result of the completion and occupancy of the new judicial centers which are scheduled to come on line according to Minton.