The spending cuts facing Alabama's court system - already marked by years of yo-yo budgets -- will leave it unable to meet its constitutional requirements, Gov. Robert Bentley and court officials warn.
Alabama's Administrative Office of Courts estimates the current cuts, mandates and one-time expenses will mean a $27 million cut from its budget and the elimination of 618 employees across the state.
Officials warn the cuts will mean no money to pay jurors, dockets will get backlogged for family court and civil disputes, and already-crowded county jails will get worse while inmates wait for their day in court.
The $700 million budget shortfall Bentley announced after last year's election would mean deep cuts across state agencies for state troopers, crime labs, aid to needy children, veterans, state parks and more. Bentley has proposed a series of tax and fee hikes to make up the deficit, but the Alabama Legislature is still working on next year's budget.
The court system, a co-equal branch of government, doesn't submit its budget directly to the Alabama Legislature. It must go through the governor's office. Bentley has proposed a $17.8 million cut, leaving $163 million to fund the state's court system.
Rich Hobson, the state's administrative director of courts, said if the proposed budget is approved, hundreds of state court employees will lose their jobs, including most juvenile probation officers in the state.
"This is a crazy, devastating proposition," Hobson said.
Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard, the current president of the Alabama District Attorney's Association, said prosecution efforts in smaller counties would be greatly hampered by the spending proposals. Broussard said the 17 percent funding cut is effectively doubled because salaries for district attorneys and retired supernumerary prosecutors are protected by statute, so the cuts have to come from elsewhere in the offices.
"There are DAs offices in the state that it would be near fatal for them," Broussard said. "Some of my fellow Das, if they're cut 34 percent, they won't be able to operate."
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has argued state courts cannot afford the budget cuts. He has also argued the state constitution requires adequate court funding be provided by the Legislature.
Alabama's court funding has varied considerably over the past decade. The current proposal of $163 million for the next fiscal year would move court funding back to 2006 levels. But in the intervening years, the courts have seen funding rise to $175 million annually in 2007, grow to $185 million in 2009 and stay level until 2011.
Then in fiscal 2012, the courts were cut by $17 million - which led to 300 job cuts - and reduced public hours at court clerks' offices around the state.
In the past four budget years, including this year's proposal, the court system has seen its overall funding rise by $9 million in fiscal 2013, get cut by $3.6 million fiscal 2014, rise an estimated $7 million in the current fiscal year and face the $17 million proposed cut for next year.
Hobson said the court system is still dealing with backlogs that began as a result of the calendar year 2011 cuts. He said the additional cuts would reverberate across the state.
"It's going to affect businesses and anybody in family court," Hobson said. "Small claims courts, which for lesser amounts of interactions someone may have with a business, whether you have an attorney or not, those dockets will be heavily decreased or suspended for who knows how long.
"We have a Constitutional mandate for speedy trials, so that would be the main priority, but there would still be massive delays in that because we wouldn't have the money to pay jurors, so defendants would stack up in the county jails."
Alabama Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who chairs the Senate's Budget Committee, said the state budget is facing cuts across the board.
"It's extremely important that we fund the courts adequately," Orr said. "It will be hard for our court system to sustain the level of cuts unless we don't find these additional revenues."
Orr favors a proposal that establishes a system to move existing judgeships -in the event of a death or retirement - from counties where the courts are not busy, to communities with overloaded dockets in need of more judges. Orr said the committee-based system would save money and send more resources where they are most needed.
Hobson said the court system took in $138 million in the past year in court fees and fines that go to state executive agencies or into the general fund.
"The fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and we are supposed to plan our year, but right now, we are at the point, we cannot afford to lose anybody else," Hobson said. "This is an equal branch of government, but if you compare it to all the money spent for operating the state of Alabama, our entire budget is .67 percent of the amount spent, it's a drop in the bucket."