MO Lawyers Blog

Courts budget faces additional $1.5M cut 

Gov. Jay Nixon is withholding $1.5 million more than expected from the budget for circuit courts.

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Courts told to cut $500,000 before July 

State revenue continues to decline, so Gov. Jay Nixon says the state must cut another $126 million to get through the current fiscal year. Missouri courts must share in the pain, coming up with $500,000 in cuts between now and June 30. The administration left it to the judiciary and the Office of State Courts Administrator [...]

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Nixon releases fraction of promised stimulus funds to public defenders 

The state’s public defender system will likely receive only $500,000 of the $2 million in federal recovery funds allocated to the beleaguered system by the state Legislature. Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget office released the $500,000 on Oct. 15. Is it possible the governor will hand over the remaining $1.5 million? “It would say it’s not going to happen,” [...]

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Some courts told to reorganize staff 

Judges and circuit clerks are gearing up for the headaches they expect from a Missouri Supreme Court requirement that counties pick one official to oversee court clerks. Most of the state already operates that way. But there are 37 counties plus St. Louis City, from a total of 115 political subdivisions, that don’t have circuit court personnel [...]

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Survey: How state courts are reacting to the recession 

State courts across the country are implementing numerous and varied cost-cutting measures – from reducing court hours to implementing furloughs and hiring freezes to consolidating courts — in response to budget cuts brought on by the economic recession, according to a recent survey. A number of courts have said they are turning to advanced technology as [...]

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Legislature approves judiciary budget 

The Missouri General Assembly has completed a budget that uses federal stimulus money to forestall cuts made to the state’s judiciary system. As a result, both the judiciary and the state’s public defender system will see slight increases to their 2010 operating budgets. The House passed the judiciary budget bill 104-55 on Thursday. The Senate has now [...]

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Senate passes larger judicial budget 

Missouri Senators have used $6.7 million in federal stimulus funds to plug various holes in the state’s judiciary budget. Earlier this year, the House passed a bill for next fiscal year’s budget that includes about $187.1 million for the state’s judiciary system. That’s about a $2.7 million cut from the current fiscal year. But the Senate’s draft [...]

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First-round budget cuts money to judiciary 

Alarm bells are sounding over an early draft of the state budget cutting funding for the state’s judiciary system. Yesterday, the Missouri House gave first-round approval to 13 bills making up the state’s budget. One bill debated includes funding for the state’s judiciary system and public defender program. The House Budget Committee recommended allocating roughly $2.6 million [...]

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