The Impact of Colorado's Fiscal Crisis on the Judicial Branch

• Publication year: 2003
• Pages: 79
• Citation: Vol. 32 No. 10 Pg. 79

32 Colo.Law. 79 Colorado Lawyer 2003.

2003, October, Pg. 79. The Impact of Colorado's Fiscal Crisis on the Judicial Branch

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79

Vol. 32, No. 10, Pg. 79

The Colorado Lawyer
October 2003
Vol. 32, No. 10 [Page 79]

Departments
Judges' Corner
The Impact of Colorado's Fiscal Crisis on the Judicial Branch
by Mary J. Mullarkey

When the state's new fiscal year began on July 1, 2003 the Colorado courts and probation faced an uncertain future with 13 percent less staff than last year and the likelihood that 45,000 more cases will be filed this year than were filed in 2001. What happened and what have we done about it

The Big Picture

The short answer is that the state ran out of money. Because Colorado cannot run a deficit, the legislature slashed its then-current operating budget for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2003. Anticipating that state revenues would continue to decline, it adopted an even lower budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2003. The Judicial Branch was not singled out for poor treatment. To the contrary, the legislature treated us fairly, but there simply was not enough money to go around.

Fiscal Year 2003 (July 1, 2002 to
June 30, 2003)

I became aware of the state's serious financial problem in August 2002 when the reported tax revenues fell sharply. We began to plan for what appeared to be inevitable budget cuts. Our goals were to avoid layoffs, if possible, and to make changes consistent with our responsibility to do justice by fairly resolving disputes.

The Judicial Branch operates within some serious financial constraints. To protect the independent decision-making of judges, the Colorado Constitution prohibits reducing judges' salaries during their terms of office. We have no programs to cut, and approximately 85 percent of the judicial budget goes to pay our employees. Thus, we could make a significant reduction in our expenditures only by cutting personnel costs, and doing it immediately.

We instituted an across-the-board hiring freeze on September 1 and required our employees to take three days without pay. Those actions were intended to save about 4 percent of our budget. I hoped to offset those losses by persuading the General Assembly to raise court filing fees when it convened in January.

As the fiscal year progressed, the state revenues continued to fall. Although the General Assembly did...