The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Executive Department

State House Boston, MA 02133

(617) 725-4000

MITT ROMNEY

GOVERNOR

KERRY HEALEY

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

February 20, 2003

CONTACT:

Shawn Feddeman

Karen Grant

(617) 725-4025

ROMNEY LOOKS TO STREAMLINE COURTS AS BUDGET ROLLOUT CONTINUES

Proposal would cut patronage, waste in court system

Governor Mitt Romney today previewed another portion of his Fiscal Year 2004 budget by outlining a plan to squeeze savings from the state's courts, putting an end to the patronage, duplication and waste that has crippled the state's judicial system.

“Massachusetts is saddled with an 19th century court system in a 21st century economy,” Romney said. “These common sense improvements in the courts will save taxpayers millions of dollars without affecting the ability of the courts to administer justice.”

Romney zeroed in on one example of waste: The Boston Municipal Court. He said although the Boston Municipal Court has 11 judges, one courthouse and jurisdiction of only one city, its administrative costs rival those of the entire state District Court with 170 judges and 60 courthouses.

Folding the Boston Municipal Court into the District Court system, as Romney proposes, will save an estimated $4 million.

Overall, according to Romney, court costs since 1996 have grown by an average of 7 percent a year despite a decrease in case volume of 1 percent.

“The waste in our court system is not hard to find. It's eye-popping, and practically leaps off the page. Even without a budget crisis, I would be proposing these sensible reforms. The budget crisis make them even more imperative,” said Romney.

Romney also said he will consolidate the state's most underutilized courthouses. Under his budget plan, eight courthouses are slated for consolidation with adjacent districts. They are Ipswich, Charlestown, Natick, Orange, Clinton, Ware, Uxbridge and Winchendon, each open and staffed five days a week even though their caseload can only keep a judge busy between one to three days a week.

Savings from courthouse consolidation are estimated at $3.5 million.

Romney also proposed transferring the Community Corrections program, which oversees low-level offenders, from the Probation Department to the Department of Correction, eliminating duplication in services provided by two different branches of government for a savings of $2 million.

Romney also took aim at patronage in the courts, but said he will protect frontline clerical staff in favor of getting rid of assistant clerks and registers - particularly in those courts where they exceed the number of judges. This reduction in personnel is expected to save $12 million.

The budget transfers authority back to the courts so that they can allocate their funds as they see fit by reducing the number of judicial line items from 161 to 14, ending the oft-criticized practice of micro-managing court budgets by the Governor and the Legislature.

“As the individuals who battle to administer justice every day, the judiciary - not the Legislature or the Governor - should determine how best to spend their money. It's not only good management; it preserves the constitutional independence of our third branch,” said Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Healey said the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court deserves to choose her own management team, allowing her to decide how to get the job done with the resources available. The chief justice of administrative management and all the trial court chief justices should serve at her pleasure, Healey said.

“A basic principle of good management is to give the leader of an organization the ability to choose their own management team and hold them accountable. The Governor, the Senate President and the House Speaker have this authority, and so too should the leader of our courts,” Healey said.

The Romney budget plan makes the court system pay for their inability to collect fees by connecting court managers to the consequences of their decisions. Last year, the court system failed to collect over $40 million in court assessments, costs and fees - monies that would have gone to the state Treasury.

Under the new system proposed by Romney, the court system will be allowed to keep probation service fees, bar examination fees and a user fee for Trial Court law libraries. If these monies are collected as required by statute, the Trial Court operations will be fully funded. If these monies are not collected, the Trial Court will need to reduce its budget.