Cue the panic button.
Judiciary leaders may be trembling over the governor’s threat of a $200 million budget cut, but they’ll be full-on quaking if a projection by the Legislative Analyst’s Office comes to fruition.
Democratic lawmakers asked the LAO for a list of possible cuts if voters don’t pass -- or, if Republicans block them from the ballot -- $13.5 billion in tax extensions. And that list, released today by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, isn’t pretty.
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor suggests cutting another $2.6 billion from judicial and criminal justice programs. So, on top of axing $200 million from the courts’ budget, the state would:
• Cut another $156 million from the judiciary;
• Force trial courts to drain their reserves (which many court leaders say don’t exist) and slice another $50 million from their funding;
• Require court employees to take two furlough days a month (see: court closures);
• Delay court construction projects for one year;
• Delay a pilot program providing lawyers to litigants in some civil cases;
• Eliminate drug court programs.
New Attorney General Kamala Harris would probably need smelling salts, too. The LAO says the state could ax “various” DOJ law enforcement programs, cut funding for discretionary DOJ legal work and require counties to reimburse the state for AG work on cases where district attorneys are disqualified from handling local cases.
There’s lots more, but you get the picture. The suggested cuts even make the LAO queasy, as “we have had to go far beyond our normal comfort level in order to meet the requested solutions target,” Taylor wrote.
The list will certainly be a hot topic in the coming weeks, with Democrats warning of what may happen if taxes aren’t extended and Republicans accusing Democrats of ginning up draconian cuts to scare potential voters.
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