Chief Justice slams state legislators for budget slash

opinions

April 20, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss of the Kansas Supreme Court told a gathering of the League of Women Voters last week that the state’s  courts would have to be closed for 85 days every year if the budget cuts proposed by the House became law. That’s 12 weeks; about three full months.
The House would cut the judicial budget by $17 million and since the department’s budget is almost all devoted to wages and salaries, the only way to handle such a draconian cut would be to send employees home 85 days each year without pay, he said.
Won’t happen, of course. The judicial budget proposed by Gov. Sam Brownback is acceptable, Justice Nuss said. And the $800,000 reduction proposed by the Senate would “be painful, but could be managed.”
The House version will die a deserved death. Furthermore, if the state furloughed its court employees for that long, most of them would quit and find a civilized place to live and work.

BUT THE HOUSE obviously made the chief justice furious.
When asked what he would say to the lawmakers, he said:
“I would ask legislators this question: Is the financial condition of Kansas really so bad that we must undermine our citizens’ belief in our system of justice? I say the answer to that question is no. The financial condition is not that bad and I would hope that my fellow Kansans agree and that enough legislators would agree as well.”
He went on to say that he believes the true measure of a society is whether its people care about justice and if they want to have places where they can go to obtain justice.
“Since 1861, those places have been our courts. I’ve always thought Kansans valued justice and wanted their courts open. Preserving the rights of Kansans is one of the original functions of state government and we cannot protect citizens’ rights when the courts are closed.
“Unfortunately, right now, our courts are in real danger of being closed for weeks at a time and, as a result, the access to justice for almost 3 million Kansans is in real danger.”
This response to what should be called a stupid House judicial budget should be copied by educators. They should ask our lawmakers, and our governor, too, if Kansas is indeed so poor that it cannot afford to educate its young people well so they can have the best possible chance at succeeding in life? The answer is no, it is not.
Kansas, as a matter of fact, is thriving. Commodity prices are high. Unemployment is points below the national level. The housing bubble didn’t ever hit here and so didn’t burst. We did so well during the booming ’90s that we cut state taxes. If tax rates were brought back to the levels they were at the beginning of Gov. Bill Graves’ second term, we’d have all we needed to fund the schools.
Kansas can afford good schools and first class universities. But right now, because its lawmakers are captives of herd mentality, cutting budgets is all the vogue and educating kids is out of style.


— Emerson Lynn, jr.

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