Judiciary needs money by May 1

The chief justice of Nevada’s Supreme Court told lawmakers Wednesday without legislative action, the court will run out of money and be forced to shut down May 1.

Justice Jim Hardesty said the court is looking at a 10 percent decline in the administrative assessments that make up a huge chunk of the judiciary’s budget.

“Earlier this year we submitted a $550,000 supplemental appropriation because, in 2015, we will run short of cash,” he said. “If this is not addressed before May 1st, the court will not have sufficient cash to operate.”

Driving the point home, he asked members of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee: “Do you want us to close the judicial branch of government? I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

He said the problem is the number of citations law enforcement agencies are issuing.

“Law enforcement’s priorities have changed and changed dramatically,” Hardesty said adding the Las Vegas Justice Court for the first time listed less than 10,000 tickets.

He said there has been a decline of more than 130,000 tickets statewide from 2010 to 2014 and his analysts expect the drop to be nearly 400,000 this year.

“We think the total impact of the decline in administrative assessments will be a 10 percent decrease,” he said.

Hardesty said that’s an ongoing problem that means the Legislature should at least look at another way of funding the court that doesn’t rely so much on administrative assessments.

Hardesty estimated the court will be about $1.4 million short in the proposed budget.

“If we don’t fix this problem, the Supreme Court will be broke in the next biennium,” he said.

In the meantime, he said that supplemental appropriation is needed to keep the courts open for business this summer. Without it, he said the Supreme Court will run out of money in May. The Legislature is also considering a $5,000 emergency appropriation to fund the judicial selection commission’s review of applicants for three vacant district judges’ positions.

Hardesty said the state’s specialty courts for DUI and drug offenders and mental health patients is also short funding. He said their funding declined by 15 percent, which means fewer defendants getting the option of treatment rather than prison time.

“I believe the Legislature has the constitutional obligation to adequately fund the court,” he told lawmakers.