Court spending out of control

Literally, that is, given the judiciary's status as a separate branch of government, which judges from Judith Kaye down have defined as providing constitutional arguments for judicial pay raises. Even E.J. McMahon, a genuine fiscal conservative, now proposes a compromise whereby the court system agrees to trim the fat in exchange for judges getting a pay hike. Trouble is, more than a trim is needed, as anyone who's hung around courtrooms can attest. New York's judiciary has been arrogantly overspending forever, sometimes in harmful ways like forcing the closure of stately old courthouses (e.g. Washington County's in Hudson Falls) and mandating new ones. And given all the cutting on the table for most New Yorker, I still don't buy the argument that judges (or politicians) should get a bigger slice of the pie.

Comments

[Johannah]

I love the stately old courthouses, but in most if not all cases, court functions and volume have simply outgrown them. The old courthouses typically have only one courtroom, beautiful as it may be. They can't be expanded, can't be rehabbed and rewired for computers, etc., efficiently, at reasonable cost. It's not "arrogant overspending" or some kind of a boondoggle. In my town, most of the activity is carried on, necessarily, in an uninteresting modern building called "The Judicial Annex."

Just out of curiosity, how can you tell by hanging around courtrooms that overspending is taking place?

I don't say that overspending doesn't take place, but I don't know where the "fat" lies. Court and court-related activities (such as public defender services) are everywhere seriously under-funded.

[Brian]

Johannah: From all I've read, Bob seems to hold some sort of grudge against the state judiciary, the origin of which I'm not the least bit sure.

[Albany Exile]

It is beyond disgraceful that a judicial pay raise is so much as on the table in these times.

-The Albany Exile
http://albanyexile.blogspot.com/