By Liz Nass
Gongwer News Service
Supreme Court Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh supported the executive recommendation increases in the judiciary budget during a Senate panel Thursday but also called for expanded funding in their case management system.
Cavanagh emphasized the importance of the continuous buildout of the statewide case management system which has been funded over multiple budgets with an estimated cost of $150 million.
Cavanagh supported the additional $2 million of ongoing support from the governor’s recommendation, which would provide for 22 positions in maintenance of the system, but that they projected needing $11 million in ongoing funds in the next budget and $20 million in fiscal year 2028.
“The CMS drives so many benefits for our trial courts and our local communities and for the people that we all serve, it's critical that this progress of this initiative is not slowed by the lack of ongoing funds to support it,” Cavanagh said.
She said in questions to where the initial $150 million allocation went, Cavanagh compared it to a school millage, which continues to require funding to provide for staff and maintain a larger operation.
Cavanagh also supported the $250,000 allocation for problem solving courts including $149,300 for drug treatment courts, $72,600 for mental health courts, and $28,100 for veterans’ courts.
She said the courts received an additional $18.5 million in grant awards, but were limited to fiscal year 2025 expenditures and were allocated for startup funding of nine new programs, needing more funding to account for the normal growth of the new programs.
Her other asks was the support for one additional staff member in the community dispute resolution program to assist with increased caseloads and $100,000 more in contracted security, especially in the face of “threats against elected officials unfortunately on the rise, ensuring that (their) security personnel are adequately compensated as a small investment that pay off in prevention.”
Gongwer News Service
Supreme Court Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh supported the executive recommendation increases in the judiciary budget during a Senate panel Thursday but also called for expanded funding in their case management system.
Cavanagh emphasized the importance of the continuous buildout of the statewide case management system which has been funded over multiple budgets with an estimated cost of $150 million.
Cavanagh supported the additional $2 million of ongoing support from the governor’s recommendation, which would provide for 22 positions in maintenance of the system, but that they projected needing $11 million in ongoing funds in the next budget and $20 million in fiscal year 2028.
“The CMS drives so many benefits for our trial courts and our local communities and for the people that we all serve, it's critical that this progress of this initiative is not slowed by the lack of ongoing funds to support it,” Cavanagh said.
She said in questions to where the initial $150 million allocation went, Cavanagh compared it to a school millage, which continues to require funding to provide for staff and maintain a larger operation.
Cavanagh also supported the $250,000 allocation for problem solving courts including $149,300 for drug treatment courts, $72,600 for mental health courts, and $28,100 for veterans’ courts.
She said the courts received an additional $18.5 million in grant awards, but were limited to fiscal year 2025 expenditures and were allocated for startup funding of nine new programs, needing more funding to account for the normal growth of the new programs.
Her other asks was the support for one additional staff member in the community dispute resolution program to assist with increased caseloads and $100,000 more in contracted security, especially in the face of “threats against elected officials unfortunately on the rise, ensuring that (their) security personnel are adequately compensated as a small investment that pay off in prevention.”
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
https://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
