The Courts, over the last years, often have weighed in on individual cuts to programs, sometimes even mandating new spending. Remember the case of healthcare services in prisons?
After it was decided that the state didn’t provide sufficient access to healthcare in its prisons, the cost of prisoners’ healthcare more than doubled to $2.8 billion per year.
While that is just one example, some say that court decisions have cost the state as much as $5 billion.
From the Orange County Register:
California’s Legislature is so polarized over the state budget that lawmakers in recent years have mostly kicked the problem down the road. But even when lawmakers do agree and the governor goes along, they don’t have the final say.
Judges do.
The state and federal courts have repeatedly intervened in the operation of California government, preventing budget cuts approved by legislators of both parties and even forcing the state to spend billions of dollars more than lawmakers approved.
Read the full article here.