In unusually alarming terms, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court told legislators Thursday that a nearly 10 percent budget cut to the state court system would be tantamount to anything from ''murder'' to ''suicide'' to a ``spear to the heart.''Justice Fred Lewis said the $42.1 million in cuts contemplated for next budget year -- when added to this year's budget cuts -- would lead to the firing of 971 court employees statewide, inevitably leaving the court system ''comatose'' or in a state of ``effective death.''
Lewis acknowledged that the reduction was ''insignificant'' when compared to the $2 billion to $3 billion in total budget cuts but said it would lead to the virtual shuttering of the judicial branch, which has 4,207 employees and a total budget of $445 million.
''When you ask a branch to commit suicide, it cannot. It may be murdered by others. And we may not find justice,'' he told the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee. But the judgment must rest on the plates of those public servants who have been elected to maintain Florida as the bright, shining star that it is.''The committee chairman, Sen. Victor Crist of Tampa, said the justice had a legitimate concern, but that the judicial branch could be spared the most because courts and county clerks could raise court fines and fees and do a better job collecting them -- especially in Miami-Dade County, where millions aren't collected and sent to the state some years.
Lewis said he supported finding these ''other revenues'' but wouldn't say what they were. He said the situation was ``dire.''
''We're not talking about putting a case off for an hour. We're not talking about minor impacts. We're talking about the children of Florida. We're talking about the most vulnerable of Florida. We're talking about keeping our citizens safe and sound and secure,'' Lewis said.
Noting that the use of court and social services rises with a bad economy, Crist also said that state attorneys, judges and public defenders need to do a better job managing their time, selecting cases to prosecute and ensuring that only the truly poor use public defenders. But neither Lewis nor state attorneys nor public defenders in the room said they were aware of widespread mismanagement of court time or cases.
The budget cuts, Crist said, will be far worse for other programs that don't have as many revenue-raising opportunities. Those include prisons, the parole commission, guardian ad litem services for kids, juvenile-justice programs and drug-prevention programs.
In the world of legislative budgeting and Senate traditions, Crist said, he can't ask Senate President Ken Pruitt for more criminal-justice budget money because it would come out of another senator's section of the state budget. But he told his members that they could advocate for more.
Sen. Alex Villalobos of Miami quickly zeroed in on the transportation budget. He said the money should come from the road-building and development program that Pruitt said could cost up to $5.4 billion.
Democrat Arthenia Joyner of Tampa and Republican Charlie Dean of Inverness agreed, with Dean, saying environmental programs protecting things like ''frogs'' should take a back seat.
''The frogs will have to find another pond,'' he said.
One reason the Senate wants to plow so much into roads is the way the Legislature classifies money. Much of the road money for paving comes from gas taxes. And other construction projects are normally funded by what's called ''nonrecurring'' money that can't be counted on from year to year.
On the other hand, day-to-day programs like courts and schools are funded with money that recurs day to day and year to year. That recurring cash is drying up. So lawmakers are cutting recurring programs so they don't exhaust savings money and cause a future budget hole that's even bigger.
Justice Lewis said he wanted to stay out of legislative fights and setting legislative policies, but he acknowledged some frustration with the way the ''system'' works. He said the court workers would work as hard as possible in the meantime, despite the fact budget cuts are ``placing an arrow through the heart of the branch. I can tell you, the soul of the branch will remain strong.''
