Jurors, and Courts, Need Raises

The state Judicial Council, the policy-making arm of the courts, voted last week to push ahead with a proposal to raise the meager pay of jurors, reimburse them for parking and child care and provide tax credits to employers who pay jurors while they are on jury duty. On Monday the council sponsored a joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly judiciary committees on these proposed changes. They are hardly controversial measures. But the state’s ability to implement them depends on the willingness of the Legislature and the governor to bite the bullet on a trial court funding package they jettisoned last session.

The funding problem has been building for years. The counties, which historically have funded the trial courts, are now hard-pressed to meet other mushrooming financial obligations, such as for welfare and jails. That’s why the Legislature some years ago promised to provide 70% of the courts’ funds. Thus far, the state has not delivered, and this failure sent delegations from the Los Angeles Superior Court, among others, scurrying to Sacramento last year for emergency appropriations in order to keep operating.

A comprehensive funding bill died last September. Without a funding agreement by January, according to a recent Judicial Council analysis, some courts will run out of funds, possibly forcing judges to shut their doors.

The state’s 167 trial courts desperately need the predictability that only state funding would provide. And the public deserves the modest improvements in juror service that everyone agrees is needed. But they can’t happen without state funding. The Legislature reconvenes briefly on Dec. 2. Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer vows to resurrect last year’s funding package, this time as urgency legislation. That special and immediate consideration is now warranted.