Expecting a shortfall, clerks prepare to cut services.

Florida's clerks of courts are preparing to make cuts to services--expected to fall predominantly on the handling of civil cases--following budget decisions in the legislative session.

Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers General Counsel Fred Baggett said clerks were expecting a $14 million shortfall in their authorized budget for the current fiscal year. He said the FCCC was hoping the Legislature would both fund that shortfall and allow the clerks to keep a larger proportion of the fees they collect to offset projections of future deficits.

Instead, lawmakers wound up making up only half of this year's shortfall and approved a slight increase in the fees they can keep--not enough to make up for this year's shortages, much less a further expected decline of $14 million next year.

"It's going to mean having to continue to prioritize on the due process areas of criminal law, which means a deprioritizing on the civil side. Cases are going to take longer to be processed," Baggett said. "Clerks are going to have to consider reducing public hours and possibly consider reducing branch offices."

The failure to make up the entire deficit this year, he said, means clerks will have a 3.5 percent cut for the rest of their fiscal year, which ends September 30.

The House and the Senate had radically different approaches to the clerks' budget needs. The original Senate bill, Baggett said, had $25 million in extra funding for the clerks this year, and it allowed clerks to keep an extra $25 million of the fees they collect, which would otherwise go to the state's general revenue fund, to address future problems.

If there were future shortfalls despite that, the Legislative Budget Commission, which approves the clerks' budgets, would be able to certify a request to the Legislature to make up the deficit.

The House bill provided no extra money for this year and no increase in fees for next year. It did remove the clerks from under the budget oversight of the LBC and allowed budgets to be set by the Clerks of Court Operation Corporations, which handles collective administrative matters for the clerks. However, those budgets could not exceed income projections from the state's Revenue Estimating Conference.

The final compromise, Baggett said...