Judges paint bleak financial picture for 2013
The New Orleans City Council heard a plea from the judges of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court for more money during a review Monday of the court's proposed budget for next year.
Chief Judge Camille Buras said criminal court is faced with a very dire picture: the Landrieu administration is proposing a 31 percent cut in the city's appropriation to criminal court in 2013, and the decision to prosecute misdemeanor cases in municipal court instead of criminal court has hurt criminal court's ability to self-generate funds.
"We will be operating in a deficit capacity in the very, very near future," Judge Buras said.
Judge Frank Marullo told the council, "We can't operate on $1.526 million. There's gotta be some compromise on that."
Buras said she doesn't know how criminal court would absorb a 31 percent cut.
