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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Clark Council funds courts, building renovation"

Updating this ILB entry from Feb. 11, 2010, headed "Under pressure, Clark Council to give courts $620,000," Ben Zion Hershberg reports today in the Louisville Courier Journal:

The Clark County Council approved a $2 million bond issue Tuesday to help finance a long-delayed county government building renovation and provided $565,000 from its rainy day fund to keep the courts operating through the year.

The actions at a special meeting followed a warning from council member Barbara Hollis that the county’s budget crisis could get even worse.

In previous years, Hollis said, basing budgets on estimates that weren’t accurate left the county in a hole. The final budget should be available from the state before the next council meeting on March 19, she said, urging the council to delay acting on the court requests until then.

“I don’t think there’s so much of an emergency that we can’t wait three weeks,” she said.

But council member Chuck Moore disagreed. The courts requested that funding be restored to 2009 levels after it was cut 30 percent at the end of last year.

“We’re not funding the essential operations of the courts,” Moore said, noting that the judges could use a judicial mandate to require the county to provide even more funding. Such a mandate also could lead to a legal battle that would cost still more, he said.

Clark County Superior Court Judge Vicki Carmichael also urged the council to quickly provide what the judges requested.

“I’ve been told by the (Indiana) Supreme Court and the State Board of Accounts I can’t use money” the way she’s been paying court expenses, Carmichael said.

She said the four county courts have been using money collected from probationers and people using alcohol and drug programs to cover court costs. Such fees are supposed to be used only to help pay for programs in which they’re collected, so it must be refunded, she said.

The council voted 5-2, with Hollis and Jackie Dickman voting no, to restore funds to each of the courts from the rainy day fund.

The ILB has a number of additional entires on the funding of Clark County courts.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 24, 2010 02:24 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts