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player ready...Court reporters and officials in Lake County Circuit Court breathed a collective sigh of relief Thursday afternoon when the Illinois Senate narrowly approved a budget fix that addressed a shortfall in funding for the courthouse duty.
Lake County’s 21 court reporters had been working half of their normal hours for the past two weeks due to the state funding shortfall. The staffing shortage caused operational problems in the local felony courts as well as financial problems for the reporters themselves.
“The last two weeks were stressful,” said Caren Rapinchuk, a court reporter who has worked in the 19th Judicial Circuit for 28 years. “It’s the first time I’ve ever dealt with it (being on furlough). It’s kind of like you are walking in a fog. You can’t believe it.”
There was a sense of celebration in the courthouse after the vote.
Chief Judge John Phillips, who had initiated the staggered furloughs to avoid layoffs that had already occurred in some state circuits, said he was “stupendously relieved.”
Phillips said the first thing he did was text the court reporting staff with the results of the vote.
“We’re so grateful to Judge Phillips and the way it was handled here,” Rapinchuk said of the local circuit’s ability to avoid layoffs.
“It seemed kind of lonely coming in and seeing only half of our members here,” said court reporter Candy Sartwell, who has worked in the circuit since 1978. “I’m very happy it passed, but a little disappointed by how close it was.”
The measure was approved in the Senate by a 32-26 vote with one member voting present.
Phillips said he hopes the bipartisan effort to fix the budget shortfall “is a signal of things to come,” as the Legislature moves on to address tough financial questions in the next fiscal year budget.
Meanwhile, the Lake County Circuit Court has some catching up to do. Over the past two weeks, court calls from several different courtrooms were consolidated into one or two open courts, leading to the continuance of many cases that would have been addressed, officials said.
“I think we will feel this for a few months. A few more weeks and this would have been a real catastrophe,” Judge Daniel Shanes said Thursday.
Shanes said his felony courtroom was closed Tuesday and twice last week due to the court reporter shortage.
“People who were to have had their day in court — their day of justice — were delayed for months because of two weeks of furloughs,” he said.
The plan — approved by the Senate after it was backed by both Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan — addresses a $1.6 billion budget shortfall with fund sweeps and spending cuts.
The plan was approved by the Illinois House of Representatives on Tuesday. The fix addressed a roughly $17 million shortfall for the benefits and salaries of court reporters.
State Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, who had voiced qualified support for the plan Wednesday, said she felt she had to vote against it after studying the funds that will be impacted.
“This was a painful ‘no’ vote for me,” Bush said after the Senate adjourned. “This plan had good intentions, but in the end it’s too short-sighted to be good policy. Solutions cannot come by raiding schools at the expense of our children, or road funding at the expense of vital construction jobs that help drive the economy.”
State Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, voted in favor of the proposal.
“We got it done and I think it was the right thing to do, ” Link said, adding that it staved off further problems with court reporters, prisons and some of the other threatened programs.
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