Rep. Chad Hays, R-Catlin, suggested the funding shortfall for court reporters, prison employees and daycare providers could be solved by this time next week.
"I think it's possible you will see a vote on this measure by the end of next week," said Hays, an assistant Republican leader, on Friday. "You can't let the child care system shut down. You can't let the court system shut down."
To say the court system would shut down is a bit of a stretch, but the lack of reporters would certainly slow the wheels of justice considerably.
State law mandates verbatim records prepared by human reporters of almost all felony proceedings and child custody, mental health, juvenile and parentage cases. Four of the six counties in the Sixth Circuit have digital recording systems. Douglas and Moultrie counties do not.
"Where court reporters are not absolutely required by statute, we'll use the recordation system, but we won't have anyone in the room monitoring (for glitches)," Difanis said of Champaign County. "We'll turn the system on at 8 a.m. and turn it off at 5."
The furloughs would affect 23 employees circuit-wide.
Champaign County has seven court reporters and two specialists who monitor the digital recordings in a room not accessible to the public. Macon County has 10 reporters. And each of the four smaller counties — DeWitt, Douglas, Moultrie and Piatt — has one full-time reporter paid by the state and a second reporter who works two days a week who is paid by their county.
Flannell said the "good news" in his "very preliminary plan" is that the part-time county-paid reporters would be asked to do more, with the counties pitching in extra funds to pay them, so he could spread out the state-paid reporters to help in the courthouses in Urbana and Decatur, which have far more business than the other four.
"Where necessary, we're being encouraged by the Supreme Court to bundle cases together into one physical courtroom. As in every crisis, you get some definition of things you don't normally look at. We'll take a re-look of that which we're required to do. Some of this is done just for the efficiency of the court but if we're short-handed, we will do only what is absolutely required by the Constitution or state statute," Flannell said.
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