Budget deficit may kill judicial center project

With the county's budget deficit boosted to $10.4 million because of lower than anticipated property value revenue, two county commissioners said it is not the time to consider building a standalone judicial center.

"It's a no-brainer," Commissioner Jim Adkins said. "We cannot build (it). The taxpayers aren't going to hold for it. We can't do it."

And budget shortfall notwithstanding, there may no longer be a need to build a new center anyway, said County Commissioner Dave Russell.

The exodus of staffers from the government center due to layoffs, combined with the empty space available at at least two county-owned buildings, should allow the judiciary plenty of room downtown, Russell said.

Russell said he will ask his colleagues during the June 23-24 budget meeting to take the idea of spending millions on a new judicial center "off the table for now."

Russell said the building department on Providence Boulevard, across from the sheriff's office, has several empty offices where government center employees could be transferred.

And now that the utilities department closed its main office at 21030 Cortez Blvd. (the old Lila Dess restaurant east of the State Road 50 and U.S. 41 intersection), the county has additional room to house employees, he said.

"The way we're going right now, we may very well accommodate the courts in the existing facility because there won't be any need for administration," Russell said. "We can create enough court space within our facility to meet their needs for decades. We're cutting departments, downsizing, combining, streamlining to the point where we can move some of the departments out to other parts of the county."

County commissioners during recent meetings had considered the feasibility of a standalone judicial center to be built somewhere in Hernando County. They even approved the formation of a committee to explore design possibilities for such a center.

Although $19 million remains set aside in a reserve fund for the project, commissioners had been hesitant to go ahead with it because of the bleak economy.

They agreed to form a "scoping" committee to prepare design criteria for a proposed standalone judicial center and report back to the full board with recommendations.

But last week's news that the budget deficit had grown from $8.3 million to $10.4 million puts the future of that committee in jeopardy.

Adkins said this will not affect the ongoing renovation at the government center to make more room for the judiciary.

Work continues on a new courtroom in the former jury assembly room. That work, being done in-house, should be finished the second week in October. The cost of that renovation, plus the building of a new assembly room - completed last month- should cost around $303,000.