Analysis of the 2004-05 Budget Bill Legislative Analyst's Office February 2004

Judicial Council (0250)

Responsibility for funding the construction of trial court facilities was transferred from the counties to the state by the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002, Chapter 1082, Statutes of 2002 (SB 1732, Escutia). The enabling legislation provided that certain court fees, fines, and penalties are to be imposed to provide funds for the construction of trial court facilities, but these are estimated to provide only a small fraction of the amount identified by the Judicial Council as being needed. Funding for construction of trial court facilities is projected to be one of the state's largest—if not the largest—capital outlay programs. The effect this program would have on the state General Fund is discussed below. The Governor's budget does not include any capital outlay funding for the council.

Infrastructure Plan

The 2003 California Five Year Infrastructure Plan shows that the council identified a need for only $2.7 million of capital outlay between 2003-04 and 2007-08, specifically, for an expansion of its office space (see Figure 1).

More significantly, the 2003 plan recognized that funding trial court facilities was going to become a major capital outlay program. The plan notes that at the time it was prepared the magnitude of the need was not known but it put a "placeholder" of $1 billion in the plan until better information was available. Of this amount, the plan projects $713 million will be needed from the General Fund. We discuss the issue of trial court facilities further below.

Trial Court Facilities: Funding Is Huge

There are currently about 450 trial court facilities in the state comprising about 10.1 million usable square feet. For comparison purposes, this is about the same amount as all of the academic space (classrooms, teaching laboratories and research laboratories) at the University of California's eight general campuses. To determine the cost of needed new construction, renovation, and remodeling of this large number of buildings, the Judicial Council established a task force, which estimated the cost of renovating existing buildings and constructing new ones would be between about $4.9 billion and $5.5 billion over the next ten years. Figure 2 details these costs. 

As the administration acknowledged in the 2003 infrastructure plan, the $1 billion included in the plan is a placeholder, which represents only about one-fifth of the need over the next ten years.

General Fund Likely "On the Hook" for Most Costs

Chapter 1082 provides for the imposition of various fees, fines, and penalties on court proceedings to be deposited in a State Court Facilities Construction Fund (SCFCF). It provides that it is the intent of the Legislature that construction of trial court facilities "…be funded by money in the State Court Facilities Construction Fund and additional money as necessary from the state." There is an implication in the language that the SCFCF will be the dominant source of funds for the program. It is questionable, however, that the fees, fines, and penalties that the courts will generate and deposit in the SCFCF will fund more than a small fraction of the council task force's estimated need. The past administration acknowledged this in its 2003 plan. Of the $1 billion in court costs the administration proposed to fund through 2007-08, it showed fee revenues contributing less than one-third of the total. Absent the provision of other financing sources, the General Fund will be on the hook for the remaining costs.