Iowa state court official: All options on the table for cutting costs

The Iowa Judicial Branch is slated to receive $178.78 million in fiscal year 2018 - the same amount as last year - State Court Administrator David K. Boyd told court personnel on Wednesday. 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.

There are 1,446 court employees across the state and 96 percent of the judicial branch budget is for personnel.

Boyd said the 2017 appropriation was $5.5 million short of the amount needed to maintain a 'full service court system for all Iowans.” In January, the legislature reduced the judicial branch funding by an additional $3 million.

'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.

The one day unpaid furlough is expected to save an estimated $364,573. All state court offices will be closed that day and only judges and magistrates will be working.

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

'Make no mistake, these are tough times,” Boyd said. '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.”

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