Budget Resource
Center

...providing state budgets, reports, and current news to help the court community make informed budgetary decisions.

Indiana

Overview

• Indiana is primarily a locally funded court system.  The state pays the salaries of judges, prosecutors, and magistrates and a portion of the salary of the juvenile magistrates.  The state administers funding for partial reimbursement to counties for eligible public defender expenses.  The State also pays for other special projects, such as Civil Legal Aid, GAL/CASA and drug courts.  The state also pays travel expenses.
• While the Executive Branch has instituted a hiring freeze and salary freeze, the Indiana Supreme Court has not yet followed suit with a hiring freeze but has frozen salaries.
• The Supreme Court has proposed to have the state assume responsibility for funding probation and public defender services, but the proposal was cut from the Governor's budget.  Although the Legislature has not yet passed a budget and is meeting in a special session in order to do so, it's clear that this request will not be successful.
• A Strategic Planning Committee of the Indiana Judicial Conference is studying ways to consolidate the courts and to unify the state’s trial court system and to fund the trial courts at the state level.
• The Court is in the process of implementing a state-wide case management system and is introducing an electronic citation system to speed issuance and processing of traffic citations.  It is studying the means for recording court proceedings.

Reports and Articles

• Troy Kehoe. "Budget battles not over in St. Joseph County." WSBT. August 20, 2009.

Gavel to Gavel

• Database. Search the Gavel to Gavel legislation database based on state, year, legislation category, or any combination.

State Links

• Court Budget Web Sites
• Strategic Planning
• State Budgets for 2009
• State Budget Offices