ALBANY – With its lowest staffing level in a decade and the effects of five straight years of no-growth budgets taking their toll, the Judiciary on Friday submitted a “road to recovery” spending request seeking a 2.5 percent increase, with plans to create 20 new family court judgeships and commit $15 million in additional funding for civil legal services.
“There is a point beyond which the Judiciary cannot be pushed if it is still to play its role in our constitutional system,” Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman (See Profile) and Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti (See Profile) said in the executive summary of a budget sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo. “We have reached that point.”
