While the failure of Congress to avert the ongoing sequester has drawn attention to cuts in important government services, there is an equally drastic funding crisis in New York that has received far less notice.
The Legislature recently passed a no-growth judicial budget — a move that follows years of draconian budget cuts to state courts, including $170 million in cuts in 2011. A no-growth budget sinks New York's courts into an even deeper funding hole, threatening the courts' ability to provide justice to the individuals and businesses that appear before it.
This year's budget is, at best, penny-wise and pound-foolish. Inadequate budgeting cripples the efficiency of state courts and inhibits them from operating in a healthy and effective manner. Moreover, the savings from previous cuts are minimal, considering judicial branch accounts for a mere 1.3 percent of the state's overall budget. Considering the debilitating effect of these cuts, New York should be seeking a way better return on its investment.
To effectuate budget cuts, New York's judicial branch has already laid off almost 10 percent of its workforce and reduced hours of operation for most state courts.
Less staff working fewer hours means cases take longer to reach a disposition. And despite funding gap, these cases just don't go away.
Reducing staff and operating hours isn't like closing a government building or not running public buses on certain days to reduce government expenses. Courts become backed up and cases take longer and longer to finish.
While the judicial budget shrank, demand for New York state court services reached an all-time high over the past five years — with civil caseloads in most city courts nearly doubling. This explosion in case filings meant multiple years of case backlogs in New York civil courts.
New York is kicking the can down the road — what we don't pay for now we will still have to pay for later. New Yorkers, often in their time of greatest need, have increasingly less access to justice. Citizens' cases take longer and cost more, and in some instances — for example, foreclosure hearings — their cases will only receive a fraction of the attention they deserve.
Cutting judicial funding also hurts the economy. Studies by Micronomics Inc. and the Washington Economic Group have shown that case backlogs and other court delays cause statewide economic losses in the billions of dollars, and lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses outside of the judicial branch.
Cutbacks in court services also cause delays in state criminal dockets, diverting tax dollars to support the jailing of untried defendants or threatening public safety due to forced releases. And record caseloads deny citizens their constitutional rights to access the courts and receive justice.
Rather than cutting court funding, New York should rethink how court services are delivered. For example, the state should invest in technology solutions that utilize innovative practices and procedures. Courts can, for example, adopt new business process management tools to streamline operations, utilize digital audio recordings in court, adopt more e-filing and e-payment systems, or re-engineer the court system to use more specialized courts. While this solution requires a modest investment, it is important to realize that court modernization will provide for more sustainable savings later.
Eric Broad is a student at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.