“Hi, I am from the government, and I am here to help.”
“I want government so small that I can drown it in a bathtub.”
We all know the above memes that the right wing propaganda machine pushes out to the masses. Government is too large. That government can’t do anything right and so on; over the last thirty years, since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the right has pretty much made it a goal to defund almost every part of our governmental systems making it a self-fulfilling prophecy that government cannot do anything right and that we are better off having private businesses taking over many government functions. But it's austerity measures and budget cuts that are truly hurting our communities and our society as a whole.
Last week when I was called for jury duty I was appalled by the low rate of pay jurors received for their service. My greatest fear with that low rate of pay was that it would cause economic hardship for jurors on the lower end of the economic scale. I contacted the Dane County Clerk of Courts, Carlo Esqueda, get a better understanding of how the rate of juror pay was decided as well as how items such as parking and mileage were compensated.
The court system in Dane County has been hit hard with budget cuts over the last few years. When Mr. Esqueda took office in 2007 the rate of juror pay was $35.00 a day and, he told me, he:
...used to have a program in place with [the] cafeteria where jurors got a ticket for a free coffee or soda, but former County Executive Falk asserted that the county couldn't afford this "perk" and so [he] stopped offering this in 2009.
In 2009 the county stopped offering a cup of coffee or soda to jurors and in 2010 the courts were asked to reduce their budget by another 6% ($248,000). Mr. Esqueda wrote the following to the county executive:
"By current ordinance, we pay our jurors $35/day ($17.50 per half day) plus $.485/mile for transportation reimbursement (required per statute). The National Center for State Courts notes that the average daily juror compensation nationwide is $22/day, which compares favorably to the average compensation paid by the larger counties in Wisconsin. Thus, our budget submission proposes to reduce daily juror compensation to $25/day ($12.50 per half day). This is still in excess of the statutory minimum of $16/day, but reflects Dane County’s goal to treat our jurors better than that, as evidenced by our County Board’s action to raise juror pay in 2002 from the state minimum to the current level. Further, we propose to institute the “one day/one trial” approach to juror summonsing (per Ch. 756.25[3]). Doing so will permit us to reimburse mileage at a rate that will vary from the $.485 level for the first day of service only. We are proposing a $5 flat reimbursement for that first day. Implementing these two initiatives will result in juror expense savings of $88,450. I want to make it clear that it is very distressing to me and to our judiciary that we should have to ask our jurors to bear so much of the burden of helping balance our county budget, but there appears to be no better option."
In 2012 he was asked to cut another 5% from his budget; this is what he sent to the county executive:
The fact remains that most of this office’s [Dane County Courts] expenses are tied up in personal services. It is impossible to approach any budget reduction target without proposing the elimination and/or holding open of positions. Still, there are a few initiatives we can propose to reduce expenses and move us toward that 5% target.
Ch. 756.25 Wis. Stats. requires that jurors be paid a minimum of $16 per day ($8 per half day) for their service. Dane County currently pays its jurors $25 per full day and $12.50 per half day. Understanding that we’ve already significantly reduced juror compensation over the past two budget cycles, we propose reducing juror compensation to $20 per day ($10 per half day). This will result in savings of $18,300 in 2012.
This initiative was included in the county budget for 2012. As was the case in 2009, no budget amendments to preserve juror compensation at 2011 levels were proposed at either the Public Protection and Judiciary Committee, the Personnel and Finance Committee, or the County Board floor. So, effective on January 1, 2012 jurors will be paid at this reduced rate. Per Mr. Esqueda, “I wish it were not so.”
The question comes up, why all the cuts to the Dane County Courts budget? Part of the reason for these cuts is less money coming from the state of Wisconsin to pay for the courts. The other reason, cuts in shared revenue from the state to the county and add on top of that, reduced revenue from tax collections due to the economic downturn.
Here is where we run into the problem with tax cuts and austerity measures (i.e. budget cuts) being the answer to our nation’s budget woes. In this, the Dane County Courts are a microcosm of the United States. Every city, county, state and even our federal government are facing the same choices—either raise revenue or make cuts. The problem with cuts is that you have fixed costs for units of government. In the case of the courts you have to pay judges, you have to pay attorneys, you have to pay bailiffs, you have to pay court reporters, you have pay the light bill, etc. If you keep cutting the budget of the courts or other units of government, they will fail and we have the self-fulfilling prophecy that government can’t do anything right.
I am reminded of a scene in the animated movie Heavy Metal from 1981 (which I cannot find a clip of this scene anywhere online): a cab driver goes to report a crime to the local police precinct, where he is told the cost of the investigation. He flips the officer behind the counter a coin and walks out of the police precinct disgusted. That is not a future I want for my country; however, at the rate we are going that is where I fear we are headed.
The money has to come from somewhere though the question is where? I certainly would not want to see a time when naming rights are sold for our courthouses—it was bad enough when the Dane County Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum became part of the “Alliant Energy Center.” I would hate to see the “Dane County Courthouse” become the “Madison Gas & Electric Justice Center.” I think the vast majority of people in the United States would agree with me on this one.
When Scott Walker was the County Exec of Milwaukee County he had an idea of how to fund our court system:
The state court system could actually be run by the state and funded with the return of the shared revenue payments that are currently made to the county.
Of course today, "[T]he fact remains that Governor Walker is pulling back on court funding and expecting counties to absorb that - something he criticized as a county exec."