The New Jersey Supreme Court Disciplinary Oversight Committee (DOC) has recommended not increasing the proposed 2022 budget for the attorney disciplinary system. While the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) said it was pleased with the DOC’s recommendation, it also raised some concerns.
In a letter to the Court, NJSBA President Domenick Carmagnola wrote, “Since 2009, DOC policy has called for a reserve no greater than 10% of the operating budget. The NJSBA has noted a pattern where a large deficit is predicted each year, with an indication the reserve will be reduced through deficit budgeting. Yet each year, the actual expenses are less than anticipated and the reserve remains at more than 20% of the operating budget.”
Although this year’s budget projects a deficit of close to $1.9 million, leaving a project reserve of 8.9% of operating expenses, he wrote, “it is difficult to rely on those numbers given the history” of how the DOC’s actual budgets compared to its projected budgets.
The NJSBA noted the DOC budget “continues to rely on deficit spending as a way to reduce the reserve to an acceptable amount. This is not a sustainable method of meeting operating costs,” Carmagnola said.
The NJSBA is “very supportive” of the DOC’s plan for further study of budgetary trends and “encourages the DOC to expand its budgetary study to explore cost-saving measures to eliminate the need for deficit spending in the future.”