Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska — The chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court told state lawmakers Wednesday that judicial services have already been impacted by budget cuts and he proposed universal furloughs and regular court closures to help absorb anticipated cuts for the coming year.
In his State of the Judiciary Address, Chief Justice Craig Stowers told a joint session of the Legislature the court system took a $3.4 million cut in its budget for this year and is looking at a similar cut for the next fiscal year.
In response to the cuts last year, the court system deferred purchases of new equipment, employees have taken 9,000 hours of voluntary leave without pay and courts have closed for additional days to deal with the cuts.
“Many of the court system’s staff employees are relatively low-paid employees and it’s astonishing to all of us and the court system is very proud of the people who are willing to contribute part of their relatively small salaries to make up the difference and help us help you make a difference,” Stowers said.
For the 2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1, the Supreme Court proposed an additional $3.8 million in reductions, according to budget documents.
In addition to attrition and furloughs, Stowers said courts will be closed statewide each Friday afternoon at noon beginning July 1. Non-judicial staff will be furloughed each afternoon the courts are closed early in what Stowers said would be about a 4 percent pay cut. He said he didn’t like having to close courts, even on a limited basis, but that downsizing government meant downsizing services.
“The theory behind this approach is that it is fair to ask all employees to take relatively small pay cuts rather than resort to the option of laying employees off,” he said.
If faced with a larger budget reduction than the one it proposed, Stowers said the courts would have to consider a further reduction in hours, layoffs and targeted closures for rural, low-volume courts. He cautioned against closing completely the courts with the lowest numbers and activity.
“We’ve made, through your support and contributions, tremendous achievement in opening or operating courts in rural parts of Alaska,” he said. “In many of these communities, the court system is the face of the state of Alaska. A lot of these communities don’t have troopers in them, some of them don’t have village safety protection officers. The court system is there to provide services that are critical, like helping people get domestic violence protection orders. It would be a terrible travesty to have to reduce those efforts that you and we have made to reach out to rural Alaska and rural Alaskans, including our native brothers and sisters out there.”
In addition to furloughs, Stowers said the court system was working to reduce its travel budget and had developed videoconferencing programs with the Goose Creek Correctional Center in Palmer and the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center in Kotzebue to avoid the cost of transporting inmates for minor hearings.
Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole, said Stowers’ address was unusual in that it focused primarily on ways the court could reduce its budget rather than the new initiatives or innovations legislators typically hear.
“I think that was the right message,” he said. “To talk about any other initiative, I think would probably have fallen on deaf ears.”
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