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19th JDC warns courthouse maintenance, state filings and staff cuts threaten court operations
Summary
The nineteenth Judicial District Court told the Metro Council its budget depends on roughly $6 million in city‑parish salary funding, faces deferred maintenance and rising costs from state‑filed cases that often don’t pay filing fees — officials said cuts would reduce staff and slow dockets.
Miss Gibbons, representing the nineteenth Judicial District Court, told the Metro Council that the court serves all of East Baton Rouge Parish and that two budget areas drive its need for city‑parish funding: payroll and courthouse maintenance. She said the city‑parish contributes about $6,000,000 toward salaries and benefits for the court’s key staff and that deferred maintenance — including a leaking roof — is an unmet cost for courthouse operations.
Gibbons gave workload figures to illustrate demand on the court: roughly 5,500 criminal cases per year divided across criminal divisions and about 17,500 civil filings annually. She said the court has about 85–90 full‑time employees, 15 judges and specialty court programs (drug court, veterans treatment, reentry court and a domestic‑violence intervention pilot) that rely on short‑term grants and state appropriations.
Council members pressed for specifics about state‑filed matters. Court staff said the state generally does not pay filing fees; appellate delays can mean fee recovery may take years, and the clerk of court maintains the detailed collection records that would be needed to quantify municipal breakdowns. The court estimated roughly $750,000 to $1,000,000 per year in civil filing fees that the state does not pay, contributing to a cumulative shortfall the presenters described as “floating” on parish books for years.
Judge Tarbell Smith (Division A, nineteenth JDC) added that the court, the district attorney, the public defender and law enforcement must all be adequately funded for the system to function. He warned that cuts to salaries would lead to staff losses that slow dockets and increase backlogs.
Why it matters: the nineteenth JDC argued that local taxpayers currently shoulder costs of state‑filed litigation and that unexpected cuts — including a proposed $1 million reduction explored in the hearing — would force staffing reductions and could impair the court’s ability to meet timelines and provide constitutionally mandated services.
What’s next: council members asked the clerk of court for more granular data and discussed pursuing legislative or line‑item remedies to require state agencies to help cover their filing costs. The council scheduled follow‑up budget hearings with finance and the parish attorney.
