BY MATT CECIL

SALEM—The Senate voted in favor of a proposed budget for the Oregon Judicial Department Tuesday, marking a 1.7 percent increase from the previous biennium’s allotment.

The $371.7 million allowance was slightly higher than the governor’s proposal but falls over $30 million short of the estimated cost of maintaining current service levels over the next two years, according to the bill’s budget report.

But with most other budgets already squared away, Oregon legislators don’t have many options.

“This bill does need to pass in order to keep our courts open,” said Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, co-chair of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety.

The state will foot $317.2 million of the bill, a 2.3 percent slice of the May 2011 General Fund forecast of 13.9 billion, according to Sen. Winters.

Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, expressed his frustration over the bill’s late consideration during Senate floor debate Tuesday.

“Once again, here we are at the end of the session and we have the judicial branch budget before us,” he said. “And we have to make tough choices because it wasn’t prioritized and dealt with earlier.”

Sen. Whitsett criticized the fee-for-service model used by the state Judicial Department in which funds collected from fees for court services go into the general fund.

Often those funds are reinvested into the state judiciary system.

“This just simply continues the incremental shift to a fee-for-service court system,” he said. “A system where you have to pay for access to justice.”

Sen. Whitsett referenced several measures, such as House Bill 2710, that increase court fees in the same manner as a “tax increase.”

Linda Gilbert, budget manager for the state Budget and Management Division, said those fees fund a variety of state services, many of them outside the state Judicial Department.

She says the fee-for-service model came about as one solution to unifying and simplifying court fee schedules across the state.

Yet, the bigger question is whether the proposed reductions will hurt the judiciary.

During debate on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Winters skirted concerns from legislators about the possibility of having to close state courts, placing the onus on the Oregon chief justice.

“The chief justice has total flexibility to move funds,” she said. “The legislature does not have the implementation plan from the chief justice and does not know how he will use that flexibility in these programs.”

The budget’s largest single reduction, a 5.5 percent decrease, comes with cuts to department salaries. But Sen. Winters says this should not translate into lost jobs or court closures.

This legislative session, several state agencies saw vacant positions eliminated and salaries cut.

Still, Sen. Whitsett says this will adversely affect the courts.

“Senate Bill 5516 (the proposed budget) actually will reduce the funding to the circuit courts by about 15 percent and to the appellate courts by about 10 percent,” he said.

The proposed budget also eliminates 89 vacant positions, according to Sen. Winters.

Gilbert said these and other cuts may lead to some firings but doubted it would come to that.

The bill moved out of the House Tuesday afternoon and will continue to the governor for his approval.