opinion

Tight money in state government has produced this possibility: In Minnesota, a state that prides itself on upholding the rule of law, the state Supreme Court chief justice is considering saving money by suspending prosecution of 18 minor crimes, including most traffic, truancy, property damage and harassment charges. 

Chief Justice Eric Magnuson says he will have no other acceptable options if state funding for the courts is cut 5 percent or more from current levels, as Gov. Tim Pawlenty has proposed. Magnuson says any other choice would involve damaging the ability to prosecute more serious criminal cases.

Pawlenty, who appointed Magnuson, countered last week that court budgets need trimming to pressure the judiciary to adopt cost-saving technology and streamline their operations, the Associated Press reported.

The comment had to rankle in the State Judicial Center, where efforts to streamline court administration through consolidation and technology have been the story of this decade. Around the state, court service hours have been cut; e-records have replaced paper record-keeping; county-based court services have been consolidated. The chief court administrator, Sue Dosal, won a national award earlier this year for leading those efforts.

The streamlining push hasn’t reached its limits, Magnuson and Dosal acknowledge. More can and will be done. For example, in the works is a move toward “e-citations” and fine collection for a variety of petty misdemeanor offenses. That will save $2.5 million to $3 million per year in a system that collects $200 million per year in fines that flow to state and local government coffers.

But those savings only begin to close a growing gap between court operating costs and state funding. The state provided $610 million to operate the judiciary in the current budget period — $42 million less than operations circa 2007 required. Pawlenty proposes to shrink that funding another $20 million, to $590 million, in 2010-11 — even as the recession is driving caseloads higher.  

“We’re accelerating our efficiency moves,” Magnuson said. “But you can’t 'efficient’ your way out of this budget crisis.” He is telling the Legislature something all Minnesotans should echo today as a deeper state revenue shortfall is announced at the Capitol: It’s time to make choices about what government does.

When government activities are sorted by priority, the courts ought to rise to the top. This nation’s founders made the judiciary a separate branch of government in recognition that its work is bedrock to a civilized society. As Magnuson said recently, it is the justice system that “keeps people out of the business of resolving their own disputes one-on-one.

“We are not asking for more money to benefit judges. We need the money to satisfy our [constitutional] obligation. Article I, Section 1, of the state Constitution says that the object of government is to ensure the 'security, benefit and protection of the people.’ You simply can’t do that if you don’t have enough people to run the court system.”

State Sen. Leo Foley, DFL-Coon Rapids, may think he is doing the court system a favor with a bill that would downgrade most petty misdemeanors to “infractions,” and move their resolution from the court system to a fine-collecting hearings officer. Twenty judicial positions would be eliminated statewide. The move likely would help the courts better cope with a smaller operating budget. It may be appropriate for some crimes.

But as Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, there is a risk in downgrading society’s response to low-level, nuisance crimes.

“This bill turns over maintaining a lawful, civil society to a collections agency,” Segal said. The misdeeds the law labels “petty” are ones that degrade urban livability and, ultimately, property values and public safety. Crime in Minneapolis has declined in this decade in part because the city got tough on misdemeanors. A decision to do otherwise could well make preserving the existing court system seem like a bargain.