Gubernatorial Target: A Corrupted Court System

Governor Criticizes Judiciary Budget, Calls It 'Business as Usual'
The New York Law Journal by Joel Stashenko - January 20, 2010
January 20, 2010

ALBANY, NY - Governor David A. Paterson suggested today that the court system was guilty of conducting "business as usual" by advancing a 7.4 percent spending increase that ignores the "reality" of the state's rough fiscal circumstances. In addition to urging the court system and legislators to revisit the judiciary's $2.7 billion spending plan, the governor called for increases in civil court filing fees—a measure Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has opposed. The governor's unusually critical observations were contained in a commentary on his $134 billion budget proposal he submitted to the Legislature for the fiscal year that begins April 1. His proposal calls for an increase of 0.6 percent in spending and would close a projected budget gap of $7.5 billion. "Admittedly, the operation of the courts and their reform is no simple matter; but it must also be acknowledged that the $2.7 billion Judiciary budget is a significant part of the overall State budget," the governor wrote. "The Judiciary must accept that each branch of government can no longer conduct 'business as usual,' and that all branches share an obligation to taxpayers to restructure government in light of the State's new fiscal reality." The governor is under the constitutional obligation to submit the judiciary's budget to the Legislature as it presented to him although he is free to comment on court spending.

Last year, when the courts proposed a budget that included virtually no spending increase for the second year in a row, the governor praised the courts for being "responsive" to the state government's economic situation. The Legislature and the governor are free to alter the courts' proposal when they adopt a final budget. Mr. Paterson urged the Legislature to scrutinize the courts' budget request for fiscal 2010-11. "Given the serious fiscal situation in which the State finds itself, I am transmitting the Judiciary's budget submission along with a strong charge to the Legislature to evaluate this request carefully," the governor wrote. "I also call upon the Chief Judge to revisit this request and offer suggestions for how it may be reduced." There was no immediate response today from the court system.

Court administrators had described the spending plan that they submitted in December as a "zero growth budget," with all of the projected increases going to contractually mandated wage, pension and benefit payments (NYLJ, Dec. 3, 2009). "There are no discretionary programs to cut and no nonessential initiatives to defer," judicial administrators said. The judiciary's budget does include $48 million for a pay raise for state judges retroactive to April 1, 2005, representing a one quarter of one percent increase. The legality of denying the judiciary a pay increase since 1999 is currently before the Court of Appeals (NYLJ, Jan. 13).

But Mr. Paterson today noted that Judge Lippman is doubling from $5,000 to $10,000 the size of his "judicial supplemental support fund," a pool of money to help pay for judges' robes, life insurance and other costs related to their jobs. "There appears to be little restriction on how these funds are spent," the governor noted. Of the pay raise retroactivity and the overall size of the money held in reserve for a judicial pay raise, Mr. Paterson observed, "the increase is quite large given the current economic climate," though the governor said it was "regrettable" that judges have been denied a raise. The governor said he also had warned court administrators that he opposed the judiciary including $15 million in its proposed budget to help fund civil legal services in light of the drastic fall-off in funding for the Interest on Lawyer Accounts (IOLA) fund. Mr. Paterson said he favored an increase in court filing fees for civil actions to fund legal services for civil litigants and others. The governor said increases he proposed today would raise $41 million in the next fiscal year and also deter the filing of "frivolous cases and motions." The governor's budget also proposes a continued downsizing of the state's residential and institutional system for housing potentially dangerous juveniles with the closing of two more facilities and reductions in the residential populations of two state centers. Mr. Paterson's budget proposal now goes to the Legislature for its dissection following public hearings. A final spending plan will be negotiated by Mr. Paterson and legislative leaders later in the year. Joel Stashenko can be reached at jstashenko@alm.com.