Lawmakers struggle to fund court security

AUGUSTA – No one denies there should be additional security at courthouses across the state, but members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee say there is no money to pay for it. They are asking the Judiciary Committee to take another look at court spending priorities.

Referring to a list of budget priorities for the judiciary, including enhanced court security, Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, said during a work session this week on the budget that members of the judiciary panel “supported these items unanimously. I don’t see anything here where they voted for a tax increase or adjustments anywhere else.”

Martin said he supports additional court security funding and is concerned about the minimal security at some courts. But he said the budget writers are already faced with less revenue than when the budget was presented, and increased costs of current programs.

“I’m not trying to be difficult, which is probably a surprise,” Martin said to Finance Commissioner Rebecca Wyke. “The issue of security does concern me. So if we moved to eliminate a number of people from state police and Capitol police and moved those lines to provide security to the courts, would the administration oppose that?”

Wyke responded that the courts are not the only agency of government with security concerns. For example, she said, the Legislature has concerns about the security in the State House complex.

“If you want to look at just the safety and security issues, then I think there are lots of areas other than the judicial branch that share … that issue and that we were not able to fully fund,” she said. “If you look at the entire budget, there were a lot of things we wanted to fund that we did not because there are not enough resources.”

Wyke said the budget is now in the hands of the Legislature to change as it sees fit. She argued the administration had done the “best job we know how” to balance the competing demands from all across state government.

Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, said the GOP caucus would like to provide additional funds for court security but did not see where the money could be found elsewhere in the budget. Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, agreed with Martin.

“I think this needs another look by the committee of jurisdiction,” he said.

Rep. Deborah Simpson, D-Auburn, the co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the committee is certainly willing to take another look at the budget, but she is unsure what the Appropriations Committee expects her panel to accomplish.

“Are we supposed to be looking at other parts of government spending to find money? I don’t know what they are asking of us,” she said. “I don’t have a problem with them asking us to prioritize what we asked for.”

Simpson is concerned that the Appropriations Committee is looking at the judiciary the same way it looks at the budgets of state agencies.

“They are not the same,” she said. “They are a separate branch of government.”

Rep. Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, was concerned about the number of budget items affecting the judiciary that were not included in the governor’s original budget.

“Some of these appear to be things we have to do, not things we might like to do,” he said.

Panel members tentatively agreed to some items, such as additional funds to pay for the principal and interest payments for new court facilities already approved. That includes $5.1 million for the new Bangor court facility scheduled to start construction this summer.

Several other spending items were kept on the table, including cost-of-living increases for contracts and increases in leases for some facilities.

There are many other court requests before the panel, including funds for a new District Court building in Dover-Foxcroft, renovations at the Machias courthouse and a new District Court facility for Augusta.