DES MOINES — Due to state budget cuts, all Iowa Judicial Branch offices, including clerk of district court offices, the office of the clerk of the supreme court, and juvenile court services offices, will be closed Friday, May 26, 2017. Offices will remain closed for Memorial Day on Monday, May 29, 2017, and reopen on Tuesday, May 30, 2017.
All court personnel, except judges and magistrates, will be required to take unpaid leave on Friday, May 26, affecting approximately 1,446 employees for a statewide reduction of $364,573. The initial Fiscal Year 2017 appropriation for judicial branch operations was $5 million less than the amount needed to maintain the same level of service to all Iowans as in Fiscal Year 2016. In January 2017, the Iowa Legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate File 130, de-appropriating an additional $3 million from the Fiscal Year 2017 operating budget of the Iowa Judicial Branch.
In order to address the current budget shortfall, the supreme court has reluctantly reduced the level of service the judicial branch provides to Iowans, Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady recently said in a memo. The reductions in services began last year when the initial Fiscal Year 2017 appropriation for Judicial Branch operations was $178,686,612. This was over $5 million short of the amount needed to maintain the same level of service to all Iowans as in Fiscal Year 2016.
In order to balance the Fiscal Year 2017 budget, this court approved the following actions to be taken:
• Establish a hiring freeze for all vacancies in the judicial branch.
• Hold open judicial vacancies for an average of six months.
• Reduced travel by 10%.
• Reduce furniture and non-IT equipment by 50%.
• Shift some funding for IT operations to the Court Technology Fund.
• Institute a moratorium on the expansion of specialty courts.
In January, 2017, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate File 130, deappropriating an additional $3 million from the Fiscal Year 2017 operating budget of the Judicial Branch.
