Friday, May 2, 2008

What is the financial impact of the current budget upon the courts?

The judges agreed to reductions totaling approximately $90,000. The council then cut an additional $90,000 from the court budgets. The following chart illustrates the magnitude of the cuts.



The jail budget was cut 11.3% and the sheriff's budget was cut 17.7 percent. The percentage of total reduction to the Joint Court Budget, the largest of the court budgets, is nearly four times that of the Jail Budget and two and one-half times that of the Sheriff's Budget.

The impact of these cuts is magnified by county council's delay in finalizing a 2008 budget. We have been operating on the 2007 budget. Thus, all of the reductions for the 2007 budget will have to be made over an eight month period instead of a full year. For the joint court budget, that will mean $15,217 per month instead of $10,145 per month.