Layoffs coming soon for Iowa's judicial branch

The chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court today put Judicial Branch employees on notice that employee layoffs are in the offing.

Chief Justice Marsha Ternus issued a memo to judicial officers and judicial branch staff that “a reduction in our workforce is unavoidable” given that 95 percent of the court system budget is personnel-related costs and the court must cut $16 million to meet a 10 percent reduction in state spending ordered by Gov. Chet Culver last week.

“None of our options for reducing expenses are good,” Ternus said in her memo. “The cuts are so deep that our organization may not look the same after the required reductions are implemented.”

The court's judicial council is slated to meet this week to consider recommendations on how to reduce the judicial branch's $162 million operating budget by 10 percent with less than nine months remaining in the current fiscal year.

Ternus invited judicial branch employees to submit their ideas for how best to deal with the projected revenue shortfall and subsequent spending reductions by no later than noon Tuesday.

“It is very troubling to face this prospect as everyone in the judicial branch is an

essential part of our operation and makes important contributions to the

delivery of justice in Iowa,” Ternus said in her memo. “I hope you will support each other during this very difficult time.”

Previously, the court ordered unpaid furloughs and court closure days to deal with funding reductions to the judicial branch. Ternus said the courts already have attempted to minimize spending by filling only critical job vacancies but she noted that those savings won't be enough to avoid a new round of workforce reductions.

“Judicial branch budget cuts will be deeper than anyone had anticipated,” Ternus said. “Moreover, the longer we wait to reduce expenses, the more difficult it becomes to reach the necessary level of cuts in the remaining months of fiscal year 2010.”