RD225 - Local Ordinances and the Funding of Courts


Executive Summary:
The Commonwealth’s funding of its Court System is a complicated maze of state and local tax revenues and fines and costs with little connection to service delivery. Similarly, the division of responsibility for expenses between the Commonwealth and localities comes more from historical tradition than from funding sources or accountability.

In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, Virginia’s Courts collected $95 million of fines and costs related to local ordinances that parallel state statutes. When localities adopt ordinances that parallel state statutes and citizens pay fines and costs, localities deposit these collections in their general funds without any commitment to fund education, as with the Commonwealth’s Literary Fund, or their share of court operations.

The General Assembly may wish to address the following funding issues.

1. Should counties and cities continue to have the authority to adopt ordinances that parallel state statutes and retain the fines, fees, and costs; and if so, should this process restrict funding to either education or the court system?

2. Counties and cities provide court facilities and, in some cases, staffing beyond that funded by the Commonwealth. Should the Commonwealth and locality share the cost of these expenses? If so, how should they share them?

3. Since the District Court reorganization eliminated town courts, why do towns continue to have the ability to assess and collect fines and fees?

4. Since Circuit Court Clerks receive funding from the General Fund of the Commonwealth, should the Compensation Board continue to calculate excess fees and share this funding with the locality?

5. Should the Commonwealth continue to fund a portion of the Circuit Court Clerk functions for the recordation of land records; if so, what services should this funding cover?

6. Should the Clerks of the Circuit Courts continue to receive a commission for simply depositing the Commonwealth and individual locality’s collections with the appropriate Treasurer?

7. If the Commonwealth alters the funding for court services in the Circuit Court Clerk’s office, should the administrative responsibility for this funding move from the Compensation Board to the Supreme Court?