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CCA retirement opens possiblity for budget savings, new judge

Faced with potential budget cuts to the courts, a remarkable suggestion was floated in an article by Peggy Fikac of the San Antonio Express News to reduce the number of judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Her story opens:Here?s one way to cut the budget at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Trim it by one judge, at least temporarily. The state's highest criminal court made the suggestion earlier this year during the first round of cuts to help address a looming, massive state budget shortfall. Judge Charles Holcomb is retiring at the end of this year because of age restrictions ? he's 77 - and GOP Gov. Rick Perry would appoint his replacement to serve until the next general election.But the nine-member appellate court, faced with a preliminary cost-savings target of $487,376 for the current fiscal period, said one option would be to ask Perry to leave the seat vacant until the end of the fiscal year next Aug...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 13, 2010 (boomark / email).