Court officials fear budget cut
Minnesota senators are considering increasing court fees nearly $36 million to prevent deep budget cuts for the courts system, but a leading judge and the senator in charge of judicial spending say the budget still would be too small.
"They are moving in the right direction," Hennepin County District Judge Charles Porter said. "Obviously, any cut we have to take will result in a reduction of services to the public and we don't want to do that."
Once the proposed new fees are figured in, the Senate courts funding bill suggests a budget cut for the two-year budget that begins July 1 of about 1.5 percent, much like a House bill also making its way through the process. Before the new fees were proposed, the Senate planned a 7 percent cut.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty's budget proposal originally called for a 10 percent cut.
Posted by: Don Davis on 4/16/2009 at 4:52 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: courts, minnesota legislature
