1. The citizens of this State are entitled to a judicial system that has sufficient resources to undertake the orderly and efficient administration of justice.
2. All justices and judges shall be compensated only by state salaries fixed by general law. Funding for the state courts system, state attorneys' offices, public defenders' offices, and court-appointed counsel, except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), shall be provided from state revenues appropriated by general law.
3. All funding for the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts performing court-related functions, except as otherwise provided in this subsection and subsection (c), shall be provided by adequate and appropriate filing fees for judicial proceedings and service charges and costs for performing court-related functions as required by general law. Selected salaries, costs, and expenses of the state courts system may be funded from appropriate filing fees for judicial proceedings and service charges and costs for performing court-related functions, as provided by general law. Where the requirements of either the United States Constitution or the Constitution of the State of Florida preclude the imposition of filing fees for judicial proceedings and service charges and costs for performing court-related functions sufficient to fund the court-related functions of the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts, the state shall provide, as determined by the legislature, adequate and appropriate supplemental funding from state revenues appropriated by general law.
4. No county or municipality, except as provided in this subsection, shall be required to provide any funding for the state courts system, state attorneys' offices, public defenders' offices, court-appointed counsel or the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts performing court-related functions. Counties shall be required to fund the cost of communications services, existing radio systems, existing multi-agency criminal justice information systems, and the cost of construction or lease, maintenance, utilities, and security of facilities for the trial courts, public defenders' offices, state attorneys' offices, and the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts performing court-related functions. Counties shall also pay reasonable and necessary salaries, costs, and expenses of the state courts system to meet local requirements as determined by general law.
5. The judiciary shall have no power to fix appropriations. Six months before the opening of the regular legislative session, the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court shall submit to the Governor and the Legislature a proposed budget for the fiscal year and a proposed certification of the need to increase or decrease the number of state-court judges. The proposed budget and certification shall be published on the supreme court's website so that it will be available to the media and all Florida citizens. The expenditure proposed in each line of the budget shall be clearly identified and any proposed increase or decrease in the number of judges shall be justified by statistical data included in the certification. The court shall hold a series of not fewer than three public hearings throughout the state on the proposed budget and proposed certification of need to increase or decrease the number of judges. The court will then consider any objection or suggestion by the Governor, the Legislature or any Florida citizen. Sixty days before the opening of the legislative session the court shall certify to the Legislature the total funds needed to operate the Florida judicial system, and its proposal, if any, to change the number of state-court judges. When the certification has been made according to this section, the Legislature shall not reduce any item in the budget submitted on behalf of the judiciary.

Note to Commissioners: (not part of the proposal). The 1997 Constitution Revision Commission stated that the revisions made that year were designed to ensure that there would always be a stable funding source for the Florida Court System. The judicary should be protected from the "accross-the-board reductions which have been the traditional response to revenue shortfalls," the Commission said. This little-known and largely-ignored goal appears only in the statement of intent for Article V section 14 in the Florida Statutes Annotated. Experience in the last 20 years has shown that the citizens of Florida need something much more definitive to ensure that their court system is properly funded.

The proposal submitted here ensures adequate funding of the judicial branch by giving the supreme court a more authoritative role in the budget process. The court will determine what resources are necessary for the operation of the judiciary but this determination will be made in a process that will afford a high degree of transparency and accountablity. An unnecessary or extravagant expense would not likley survive public scrutiny.

Critics of the proposal might say that the courts should not have carte blanche authority. Perhaps this criticism could be addressed by putting a limit on the court' s budget authority. For example, the revision might provide that the Legislature "shall not reduce any item in the budget submitted on behalf of the judiciary except upon a two-thirds vote." This would act as a safety valve against runaway spending. Or the revision might provide that the court has final budget authority up to a certain limit, something like 2% of the state budget. Citizens might be surprised to learn the the entire judicial branch runs on a tiny fracion of the state budget.

A procedure similar to the one proposed here exists in West Virginia. See Bagley v. Blankenship, 246 S.E. 2d 99 (W. Va. 1978). Legislators there reacted negatively to it at first, but it is my understanding that they are happy with it now. As it turns out judges are very conservative with state funds.