April 22, 2009 - On Tuesday, April 21, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved Governor Doyle’s 2009-11 budget recommendations for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, Circuit Courts and several related agencies, including the Judicial Council and the Judicial Commission.

On an 11-4 party-line vote, Joint Finance defeated an effort to cut the Governor’s recommendations for the Director of State Courts’ budget by $270,000 over the two-year biennium.  However, a 1% across-the-board cut was imposed, as recommended by the Governor, on the budgets for all courts and related agencies.

One bright spot was the approved conversion of a temporary full-time litigator position in the Office of Lawyer Regulation into a permanent position.  Also, Joint Finance approved the Governor’s recommendation to provide a two-year extension of a temporary auditor position that was created in the 2007-09 state budget to begin a standardized county court reporting program for county court costs and revenues. According to the Director of State Courts, without the extension, the project position will end before the project can be completed.

In addition, the circuit courts’ budget approved by Joint Finance includes an increase in biennial funding of $490,600 to reimburse counties for court interpreter services and mileage reimbursement paid to interpreters, an increase supported by the State Bar of Wisconsin.  The circuit courts’ budget as approved also includes full funding for three new circuit court branches created in Green, Kenosha and Monroe counties during the last legislative session.  The bill includes $1.22 million to fund the three new branches, including a circuit court judge and court reporter for each branch. 

The Joint Finance Committee also approved continued funding of one staff person for the Judicial Council (the legislature restored funding for this position two years ago, for the first time since 1995), a position long supported by the State Bar of Wisconsin.  However, Joint Finance approved the Governor’s recommendation to cut both the Judicial Council’s and the Judicial Commission’s general program operations by a total of 6%.

Finally, Joint Finance approved – with modifications -- the Governor’s recommendation to expand statutory language relating to criminal record expunction.  Under current law, in a criminal case a sentencing court may order that the record of a conviction be expunged after successful completion of the sentence, if the person was under the age of 21 at the time of the commission of the offense, and the person has been found guilty of a misdemeanor. 

Under the Governor’s original budget recommendations, current law would have been modified to provide that a person is eligible to have his or her record of conviction expunged if: (a) the person was under the age of 25 at the time of the commission of the offense; and (b) the person has been found guilty of a violation for which the maximum period of imprisonment is six years or less.  Under the Governor’s proposed plan, no court could order a record be expunged for a Class H or I felony that is a violent offense.  The Governor’s modifications would apply to sentencing orders that occur on the effective date of the subsection.

Joint Finance ultimately approved the Governor’s plan regarding record expunction on a 9-6 vote, with the following modifications. 

First, the committee unanimously approved an amendment offered by Senator Julie Lassa to eliminate the following felonies from eligibility for expunction:  physical abuse of a child (intentionally causing bodily harm), physical abuse of a child (recklessly causing bodily harm to a child by conduct which creates a high probability of great bodily harm), sexual assault of a child by a school staff person or a person who works or volunteers with children, stalking (if the defendant intentionally gains access to certain records in order to facilitate a violation or if the defendant has a prior stalking or harassment conviction), and concealing the death of a child.

Second, the committee approved, on an 11-4 party-line vote, a motion offered by Senator Lena Taylor to eliminate from existing statutes a requirement that proceeds of forfeited cash bail first be used to provide compensation to a crime victim before it is used for other statutory purposes.  The motion as approved by the committee would also permit a court to hold any forfeited cash bail for a period of time to be determined by the court.  If a defendant is ordered to pay restitution after a conviction, the cash bail must first be applied to restitution.

The Joint Finance Committee will continue to meet through April and May to complete its work on the budget before sending the bill to the Assembly and then the Senate for floor action.  Legislative leaders hope to complete the budget by June 30.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s summary of AB 75, the proposed state budget, can be found online.  A more detailed summary of the Joint Finance Committee’s procedures in reviewing the Governor’s proposed budget is available in the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's informational paper entitled, "State Budget Process."

Visit the Bar’s Government Relations page throughout the budget process for the latest updates and links.

Related articles:
State Bar update on 2009-11 state budget, April 8, 2009
State agency briefings address Governor’s budget proposal, March 25, 2009
Joint Finance Co-Chairs announce public hearing schedule for budget bill, March 10, 2009
State Bar of Wisconsin responds to Governor Doyle’s budget, February 25, 2009
State Bar President praises initiatives in Governor’s budget proposal, February 17, 2009

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