Courthouses, judicial offices closed Friday due to budget cuts

The courthouses in Linn and Johnson counties, as well as all courthouses and judicial branch offices across the state, will be closed Friday due to state budget cuts.

This includes all the clerk of court offices in all 99 courthouses, the office of the clerk of the Iowa Supreme Court and all the juvenile court services offices. The courthouses and offices will also be closed for Memorial Day on Monday.

All court personnel, except judges and magistrates, are required to take unpaid leave on Friday, which will affect about 1,446 employees and save an estimated $364,573.

The initial fiscal year 2017 appropriation for judicial branch operations was $5.5 million less than the amount needed to maintain the same level of service as last year, State Court Administrator David K. Boyd said last month. In January, the Iowa Legislature passed and Gov. Terry Branstad signed Senate File 130, de-appropriating an additional $3 million from the fiscal year 2017 operating budget of the judicial branch.

The Iowa Judicial Branch is slated to receive $178.78 million in fiscal year 2018 - the same amount as last year, Boyd told court personnel in April. In doing so, he warned them 'tough decisions” - layoffs, reduced hours and possibly elimination of specialty courts - may be necessary.

The Joint Justice Systems Appropriations Subcommittee voted to appropriate $175.68 million for operations and $3.1 million for jury and witness fees in fiscal year 2018, which begins July 1, Boyd said in a letter to employees.

'As you know, in order to balance our budget this year we implemented a hiring freeze, held open judicial vacancies, reduced travel, reduced furniture and equipment purchases, shifted ongoing IT operational expenses to our technology funds and scheduled one court closure day on May 26,” Boyd said in the letter.

The last statewide court closure due to budget cuts was in 2010.

Moving forward, Boyd said last month that all options are on the table for reducing expenses.

'Make no mistake, these are tough times,” Boyd said in his letter. 'Tough decisions will need to be made. Court services will probably have to be reduced in order to live within the funding appropriated to the branch.”  

The order closing judicial branch offices is posted on the Iowa Judicial Branch website.

l Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com