News

Lawmakers urged to address court funding peril Through greater collaboration

March 28, 2011

HARRISBURG, March 28, 2011 — Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Ronald D. Castille today cautioned members of the General Assembly that the Commonwealth may be headed toward “a crisis not of the Judiciary’s choosing” if court operations are not properly funded.

Chief Justice Castille’s remarks — before the House Appropriations Committee in the morning, and the Senate Appropriations Committee in the afternoon — urged lawmakers to address several years of failing to provide sufficient funding for court needs. Accompanied at the hearings by Justice Debra M. Todd, the chief justice spoke about the need for greater Judicial Branch input into the appropriations process to remedy the Judiciary’s adverse circumstances.

“Given six years of structural deficits, it is clear that the current process does not work, whether in good times or bad,” the chief justice said. “It does not respect the symmetry of three, co-equal branches of government. It does not uphold the core function of the Judiciary in democratic governance. It does not consider the impact of underfunding the courts. And it is leading us all toward a crisis not of the Judiciary’s choosing.

” Gov. Tom Corbett’s $276 million budget proposal for the Judiciary provides level funding for Fiscal Year 2011-2012. However, it ignores an inherited accumulated budget deficit from serial underfunding. The chief justice repeatedly has noted that no amount of savings or cutbacks can remedy the deficiency.

“The current executive and legislative branches did not create the Judiciary’s six past deficits, but this is the year when a new process can begin to put funding for the court system back on sound footing and avoid placing Pennsylvania’s justice system at risk,” Chief Justice Castille told committee members.