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Status Report on State Court Financing

NCJ Number
106622
Journal
State Court Journal Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1987) Pages: 13-17
Author(s)
M J Lim
Date Published
1987
Length
5 pages
Annotation
To obtain current information about the funding status of State court systems, the National Center for State Court's Research and Information Service conducted a telephone survey of the administrative offices of the courts of the 50 States and the District of Columbia about fiscal year 1985 State judicial appropriation and the proportional support it provided for the total court system.
Abstract
Based on survey responses, fundamental comparisons between States' judicial appropriations and State funding levels cannot be made because no nationally standard definition of judicial systems courts exists. In this survey, jurisdictions were asked to refer only to general government operations, in many States supported by a general fund, and to exclude Federal funds and other special funds. Jurisdictions identified the amount appropriated to the judiciary from the total State general operating budget and the percentage of the total State court system costs financed by this type of judicial appropriation. Some States' judicial appropriations included funding for judicial education, judicial retirement, probation or pretrial service, and indigent defense or public defender programs. Most jurisdictions could not determine the extent to which their total court system was funded by the State judicial appropriation; many provided only rough estimates. The amount of local governments' support for court expenditure items, particularly limited jurisdiction court operational costs, was difficult to discover; accounting and reporting procedures vary so widely within a State. A uniform definition of judicial system costs is needed to provide a standard unit of comparison. 1 chart and 11 notes.