04/06/06

In the House of Representatives, HB 113 CS, sponsored by Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, has already been considered and unanimously approved by three committees in preliminary hearings, and is slated Friday for the second of three final readings before all 120 members of the chamber.

The Senate version of the proposal, SB 1698, sponsored by Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, is awaiting its last preliminary hearing by the Ways and Means Committee before going to the full Senate for consideration by its 40 members.

Both measures call for the creation of 66 new judgeships statewide by the 2007 elections, including six circuit judges and three county judges for the 20th Judicial Circuit, which encompasses Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Hendry and Glades counties.

Charlotte, Lee and Collier would each be assigned one of the new county judges under the proposals.

The 20th Circuit's nine judgeships are the most proposed for any of the state's judicial circuits this year, and the most for any circuit in at least three decades.   

To become law, legislation must pass both the House and Senate before it can be sent to Gov. Jeb Bush for his signature into law.

The likelihood the measures will successfully complete their legislative journey and become law is strong.

Bush and the leaders of the House and Senate all included funding for the judgeships in their proposed budgets for the coming fiscal year.

Further evidence of the Legislature's commitment to the measures may be discerned by the influential lawmakers who have chosen to sponsor them.

Negron is the House's chief budget writer, and Crist chairs the Senate's Justice Appropriations Committee.

Because of the time lag in the two-year budgeting cycle the Legislature uses to add and fund new judgeships, the state's newer, faster-growing circuits have seen a growing gap emerge between their spiraling caseloads and the lagging pace of additional new judges to efficiently deal with them.

Last year, that gap was stretched further when additional judgeships were recommended for all 20 of the state's judicial circuits, and a political squabble between two legislators led to the 20th Judicial Circuit being the only one in the state to be cut from the final budget.

This year, lawmakers have publicly declared their intention to fund a sufficient number of judges to close the gap in the 20th Circuit, as well as set up an "equity fund" that will help alleviate future lags in funding for fast-growing circuits.

By BARRY MILLMAN

Staff Writer

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