Budget Resource
Center

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

Minnesota

Actions Underway

• Minnesota is primarily a state-funded system.  Minnesota’s budget was cut $3.8 million (1%) in FY09.  The budget will be cut $5.0 million (0.85%) in the FY10/11 biennium – a cut of $2.5 million in each fiscal year.
• Minnesota has instituted a statewide hiring freeze and left judicial positions vacant; it has instituted voluntary furloughs and a voluntary separation incentive program. To enable short-staffed offices to catch up on paperwork, Minnesota has cut hours of service at the courthouses.  Public counters have been closed half a day a week in three districts (3rd, 4th, and 10th); this may expand statewide. Appellate court clerks office to close 30 minutes earlier everyday starting June 1, 2009.
• Minnesota has terminated civil arbitration services in one District, stopped funding family court supervised visitation services in another District, reduced staffing for a domestic abuse service center, and reduced funding to drug courts statewide.  The Court has reduced the daily per diem for jurors from $20. to $10.
• Minnesota is considering the regionalization or even centralization of lower level matters using lower cost subordinate judicial officers and interactive television for some proceedings.  It has an initiative to centralize payable processing and collections enforcement. 
• Minnesota is developing a Virtual Self Help Center via a robust on-line state self help website along with specialized staff answering question from around the state on a toll free line.
• The Court is moving to multi-county work units and budgeting to cut costs, share workloads and improve consistency of practice and procedure.  Minnesota has closed a satellite court and has administratively combined two of its ten judicial districts, sharing a judicial district administrator and staff across district lines.
• The Court is considering reducing the number of judicial districts and also re-engineering courtroom and judicial functions to cut costs. 

Reports and Articles

• "Appellate Courts Clerks Office to Change Hours June 1." News Item, Minnesota Judicial Branch. May 13, 2009.
• Barbara L. Jones. "Court Funding: A Roundtable Discussion with Some Key Players." Minnesota Lawyers. March 27, 2009.
• T.W. Budig. "Chief Justice Magnuson Trying to Drum Up Support for Courts." HometownSource.com. March 10, 2009.
• Eric Magnuson. "Chief Justice Magnuson: When Balancing the Budget, First Things First." TwinCities.com. March 8, 2009.
• Mark A. Cohen. "Could Budget Cuts Strain Judicial System to Breaking Point?" Finance and Commerce. February 2, 2009.
• Scott Russell. "Public Defenders: A Weakened but Indispensable Link." Bench and Bar of Minnesota Vol. 66, No. 2. February 2009.
• Elizabeth Stawicki. "Minnesota's Budget Woes Are Part of a National Trend." Minnesota Public Radio. December 30, 2008.
• Scott Russell . "Courts at the Tipping Point: Tight Funding Imperils Justice Funding." Bench and Bar of Minnesota Vol. 65, No. 11. December 2008.
• "Chief Justice Magnuson: Funding Core Government Services Should Be Top Priority." MN Judicial Branch News Item. December 4, 2008.
• "Jury Per Diem Reduced in Response to Budget Shortfall." MN Judicial Branch News Item. July 18, 2008.
• "Budget Shortfall Forces Layoffs, Position Consolidations, Operational Changes, Reduced Services In Third Judicial District Courts." News Release, Minnesota Judicial Branch Third Judicial District. February 20, 2008.
• "Budget Shortfall Forces Hiring Freeze and Operational Changes at Hennepin County Courts." News Release, Minnesota Judicial Branch Fourth Judicial District. November 28, 2007.

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