Motion seeks to force state of Pa. to pay for county court costs

Counties would have to pay the costs of the transition and give up court-related revenues if the order is implemented.

STAFF REPORT

Millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake in Lawrence and Mercer counties in a court action seeking to make the state comply with a 1987 Pennsylvania Supreme Court order.

That decision ordered the state to fund all Common Pleas and District Court costs.

Currently, the counties pay for these lower judiciary costs.

In Lawrence County, compliance with the order would free up about $1.5 million annually or the equivalent of a third of a mill, said James Gagliano, Lawrence County administrator.

Mercer County Commissioner Brian Beader said, “We are talking about enormous sums of money,” and added that county costs would likewise be cut by “millions of dollars per year” in Mercer County.

Ultimately, property owners would benefit since in Pennsylvania they shoulder the main cost of county government.

But neither Gagliano nor Beader expect to see the money soon, even though the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania filed a motion Dec. 8 asking the state Supreme Court to force the state to comply with the ruling.

Beader said the state doesn’t have the money to comply with the ruling, and so the Legislature is unlikely to appropriate the money for compliance.

The controversy dates back to a 1987 lawsuit filed against the state by Allegheny County in which the state Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts provided an unequal system of justice when funded by counties with differing financial situations. The court allowed the current system to remain while giving the Legislature reasonable time to comply.

But the state did not act, and in 1992 the CCAP asked the court to enforce the decision. The court agreed and appointed retired Judge Frank Montemuro, who developed a four-phase recommendation to transfer funding and administration of the lower judiciary to the state.

To date, only the first phase, which transferred jurisdiction of court administrators and some deputy administrators to the state, has been implemented.

Pennsylvania counties, in the meantime, continue to foot the bill for court support staff, court-supervised offices such as domestic relations and probation and court-related row offices even though the recommendation said counties should be responsible only for funding the costs of facilities and security for the courts.

Counties also would have to pay the costs of the transition and give up court-related revenues if the order is implemented.

Also, the state has not come through with money it promised in 2005 when the Legislature made all district attorney positions full time and required the state to pay 65 percent of the salary for the position.

The state still owes Mercer County $148,000 for 2007 or 2008, and Gagliano said Lawrence County is waiting for nearly $200,000 in reimbursements.

In any case, counties have little recourse but to wait and see. Beader expects the court case to “move rather slowly.”

Gagliano doesn’t expect relief anytime soon. He said the case has been unresolved since 1987, and “that tells you something.”