House OKs revenue-generating measure for the court

A measure permitting the Superior Court to make money from the trust funds temporarily entrusted to the judiciary as well as from individuals convicted of criminal offense has passed the House of Representatives in efforts to raise badly-needed revenues.

House Bill 11-420, voted unanimously during a session last week, now heads to the Senate for action. Proposed by Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, chair of the House committee on Health, Education and Welfare, the legislation aims to boost depleted resources of the court.

The measure will allow the court to deposit trust funds in the banks at no cost to the government to earn interests whose proceeds shall then be used to administer the program.

Likewise, it will impose fines on all persons who are convicted of a criminal offense, ranging from $10 in the case of an infraction to as much as $400 for a felony.

Hofschneider has justified his proposal, saying it is intended to assist the Superior Court in dealing with sharp decline in appropriations from the government in the wake of the serious financial woes confronting the Commonwealth.

He maintained that the increasing obligations of the court to administer these funds entail costs to the government and must be offset through interest-bearing accounts where these moneys can be deposited.

The judicial branch is prohibited by law to earn money from the trust funds, which include moneys awaiting disbursement in cases of heirship, estate settlement and others.

But it spends portion of its budget to administer the accounts which are not earning interests and recipients of these moneys are not entitled to payment of such interest, burdening taxpayers who do not benefit at all from the program.

The funds currently under court’s jurisdiction stood at more than $500,000.

In addition, the proposal to penalize convicts with additional fine aims to help the judiciary to raise money for its Judicial Building Fund Account.

Under the bill, this fee be imposed in all convictions, regardless of whether a fine was imposed as part of the defendant’s sentence, except in the case of uncontested traffic infractions which are paid on or before the court appearance date where it will be waived.

The convict who fails to pay the fee will face sanction on his sentence, according to the bill.

In sponsoring the measure, Hofschneider also noted increasing expenditures by the court due to the mounting need for appointment of counsel for indigent persons as well as interpreters to both assist lawyers in communicating with their clients as well as translating during trials.