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Sunday, July 30, 2006
Ind. Courts - Crown Point city court: Income exceeds expenses; staff sees record caseload
"Income exceeds expenses; staff sees record caseload" is the headline to this story in the Munster (NW Indiana) Times, by Allison Fashek. Some quotes:
CROWN POINT | The City Court is expected to mark two milestones this year -- handling more than 4,000 cases and operating in the black.As of mid-July, the City Court had handled 2,255 new cases, Judge Kent Jeffirs told the City Council during budget talks last week. In 2005, the court had a total of 3,100 cases.
The increasing workload is nothing new. Last year, Jeffirs told city officials that cases had tripled in the previous five years.
"As you build more houses and put more police officers on the street that is inevitable," he said, adding that state grants for police to write traffic tickets also increased the number of court cases.
But through a mix of revenue from bond fees and the court's new deferral and probation programs, the court is beginning to bring in more income than its expenses, though not all of the money goes to the city's general fund.
Probation fees must be used for the probation program, and revenue from the deferral program, which allows people to get tickets taken off their records, is split between the City Court and the Police Department.
From July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005, the court brought in $126,000. But from July 1, 2005, to June 30, it had a revenue of $228,000, an increase of about 81 percent.
"The deferral program has taken off," Jeffirs said. "People are fighting to get on it."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 30, 2006 09:04 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts