AUGUSTA, Maine — The state’s chief justice on Tuesday commended Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to provide increased funding for court security in the supplemental budget for the fiscal year ahead.
The governor has proposed increasing the Judicial Branch budget by $788,312, Commissioner H. Sawin Millett Jr. of the state Department of Administrative and Financial Services said during a briefing Tuesday afternoon for the Legislature.
The money, he said, will be used to increase entry screening and to detect firearms and other weapons that people sometimes try to bring into Maine’s courthouses.
In her annual State of the Judiciary speech last month, Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley noted that every $120,000 added to the court budget allowed for the equivalent of screening one additional courthouse full time.
In the current fiscal year, the budget is sufficient to cover screening for only about 30 percent of all court days, according to Saufley.
“It is important for all Maine citizens to feel safe — and to be safe — when they enter the state courts,” Saufley said Tuesday. “Full-time entry screening is particularly important to the victims of domestic violence, who must come to courts to obtain protection from abuse orders.
“I applaud Governor LePage not only for recognizing this need but also for taking substantial action to make Maine’s courts safer,” she said. “I encourage the Appropriations Committee and the Legislature to approve the governor’s proposed Judicial Branch supplemental budget to help ensure that Maine courts are a safe place to resolve disputes.”
Courthouse security, along with making sure the poor have access to legal services, have been priorities for Saufley.
Though curbing domestic violence was the chief issue that Saufley tackled last month in her State of the Judiciary address, she did praise lawmakers for restoring baseline funding of $55 million a year to the courts after a series of cuts in the previous administration left 60 clerk and security jobs vacant because of a hiring freeze.
As of July 1, 2011, the start of the current fiscal year, those positions were filled, allowing for an increase in entry screening and efficiency in clerks’ offices around the state, she said.
Sen. David R. Hastings III, R-Fryeburg, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee and an attorney, said after the speech that funding the court system’s baseline budget “has been crucial in providing access to justice, especially in rural areas.”
puke waste of money
Must be the extra money he withheld form Millinocket…once again, class act Governor…NOT!!!!
“It is important for all Maine citizens to feel safe — and to be safe — when they enter the state courts,” What a joke!!! Spend the money on the jails to keep the scumbags in there! The Judicial system is to blame for all of them running around our streets. The police do a great job busting them, just to be slapped in the face when the judge turns them free.
To protect them from all the dangerous crazies they let loose.
Why should I pay for the courts security? If the judges and lawyers want protection, let them pay for it. Maybe if they stopped voting for guns and letting dangerous people off scot free they wouldn’t have to worry.
I think she’s flashing the gang sign.
If the C Justice wants security let her invest in G Treasuries…these days its all about money. Issue shotguns to the court reporters and lay them next to them fully loaded in the courtroom. Now that will protect everyone in court! I suggest thet court reporters take the IFW hunter safety course first. Dont bother with the NRA gun safety program “from my cold dead hands” approach its all talk.
{The money, he said, will be used to increase entry screening and to detect firearms and other weapons that people sometimes try to bring into Maine’s courthouses}
It wont be long before the Governor is in Court on the Witness Stand for the Mural debacle.
Coincedence?
I dont think so!
The whole thing makes no sense. $38 Million for the new Penobscot Judicial Center, 6 digit salaries for lifetime appointed judges (plus pensions), tons of money for law enforcement just so the judges and bail bondsmen can let ‘alleged’ criminals back on the street, plus the many thousands of dollars per year/per inmate to house and feed the ones that actually get sent to prison.
Add that to the $millions$ spent on public assistance, subsidized housing and caring for our “most fragile and vulnerable” citizens and what’s left for the rest of us working and law abiding taxpayers? Not much.
Just for once I’d like to actually spend some of the money I make on making my own life a little better, instead of seeing it eaten up taking care of everyone else.
I always find it interesting that we’re willing to spend state tax money to offer more and more protection, comfort and air conditioning to the Lawyers of this state, while there are kids going hungry because of State budget cuts.