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JUDICIAL LEADERS URGE THE GOVERNOR TO ADOPT
LEGISLATURE’S FISCAL YEAR 2003 BUDGET FOR COURT SYSTEM
Boston—In a continuing effort to
persuade the Governor to halt further cuts to the court system’s
budget, the state’s top judicial leaders are urging Governor
Jane Swift to adopt the Legislature’s Fiscal Year 2003 budget
for the judicial branch.
The
Legislature’s proposed budget of $458 million for the Trial
Court is about $12 million below the amount the Trial Court
projects it needs for minimum expenses this year. Further
cuts to the Legislature’s proposed budget for the courts would
devastate the court system’s ability to administer justice,
resulting in closing of court sessions, delaying trials, jeopardizing
security and causing drastic cuts in court services for the
public.
In a letter to the Governor this week,
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall,
on behalf of the Justices, wrote, “The Fiscal Year 2003 budget
proposed by the Conference Committee will require rigorous
fiscal management by the court system, but it will allow the
courts to operate without the crippling effects we had feared.”
She asked the Governor to safeguard the “public’s fundamental
right to fair and timely administration of justice,” which
“would be seriously jeopardized without adequate funds for
the judicial branch.”
Chief
Justice for Administration and Management Barbara A. Dortch-Okara
also wrote to Governor Swift and said, “Significant additional
budget reductions in Fiscal Year 2003 would effectively paralyze
the court system, making it impossible to continue to provide
even minimum services in courts throughout the Commonwealth.” She estimated that massive layoffs of court
personnel would be required if further cuts were made to the
proposed Trial Court budget.
Both Chief Justices praised the efforts of the leaders of the
Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association,
and many other lawyers and civic leaders for voicing their concerns
about the court system’s budget plight this year. They also
thanked House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, Senate President Thomas
F. Birmingham, the respective chairs of the House and Senate
Ways and Means Committees, John H. Rogers and Mark C. Montigny,
and the House and Senate Judiciary Committee chairs, Eugene
L. O’Flaherty and Robert S. Creedon, Jr., for their recognition
of the court system’s budget needs this year and for their efforts
to provide basic funding for the courts in a year of diminished
revenues in the Commonwealth.
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