State Must Not Bleed the Courts

The state court system is an element of California government, so it should be the state’s job to see that courts have enough money to operate. Half a dozen years ago, the state Legislature began raiding court funds to balance the state budget. That left it up to the counties to provide the bulk of the money needed to keep the courthouse doors open.

It’s not a good practice, and this sort of thing isn’t limited to the issue of court financing. The states and Washington, without providing the needed funds, too often pass laws that require local governments to spend more money.

Earlier this year, the county’s judges warned that unless they got an infusion of extra funds the courts would shut down from mid-May until the beginning of the next fiscal year, on July 1. Such a closure obviously is unacceptable.

Thanks to Supervisors William G. Steiner and Thomas W. Wilson, who negotiated for the county, and to the presiding judge of the Orange County Superior Court, Theodore E. Millard, a compromise appears to have been worked out. It must win the support of at least one other member of the five-seat county Board of Supervisors, and details remained to be ironed out. Progress, however, has been made.

The judges began by contending that they needed an extra $18.9 million to keep trial courts running through June. That was scaled back to $13.9 million. Orange County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, trying to cope with tough budgets after the county bankruptcy, disputed the judges’ figures and pointed to the county’s straitened finances.

This week the judges agreed to accept $6 million now and $8 million to $10 million more over four years, atop the normal operating budget. This fiscal year, Orange County has budgeted $130 million for the courts.

If the deal goes through, the county must be sure to live up to its end of the bargain and appropriate the extra money. The supervisors also should bang on doors in Sacramento and remind the Orange County legislative delegation of how draining, and frequent, these court-funding cliffhangers are.

The state should do a better job of providing money for the courts, not pass the buck to the counties.