Governor Schwarzenegger Not A Fan of Court Reporters
Posted in: Electronic Recording, Furloughs
Okay California officials. In case you thought the Governator wasn’t serious about getting rid of court reporters, you can hear him say it himself. In an interview he gave with a public radio station, he discussed the difficulties of making cuts to programs but also shared how the legislature could get “creative” with cutting certain programs to fund others.
Governor Schwarzenegger says “hasta la vista” to court reporters.
As an example of how the legislature could get creative, he cited the elimination of court reporters. Here’s part of an answer he gave in which he cited court reporters.
…What we have to do is make this necessary cuts but at the same time inspire the legislature to go and look at it in a creative way the way we deliver the various different programs because there’s things where we can save money and that can then be put in those programs. Like for instance, we don’t need court reporters. I mean, we can do this digitally. Why are we still holding on to court reporters? Just because the unions want to hold on and keep their jobs.
— Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Yes Californians. That gigantic hole in the state budget can be cured by eliminating court reporters. Funny how that was the first and only solution he gave during the interview. Talk about your red herrings!
You can hear the Governator say it himself by clicking here.
Posted on June 8th, 2009 by Gordon
13 Comments
June 8th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Borrowing a quote from the CPDA, the govnr is “deeply flawed and misguided.”
June 8th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Arnold Schwarzenegger has no comprehension of what it means to not have money to support yourself. He has always had more than enough for himself and his family. He’s incredibly ignorant. How did he ever get to be governor? By being a “movie star.” Get him out of there already!!!!!
June 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am
I’m sorry, but his comment is so unintelligible ’til I can’t figure out what the heck he said!
June 9th, 2009 at 9:15 am
He’s right on track to fixing the budget problems. Let’s take people’s jobs so that they aren’t taxpayers anymore.
June 9th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Since the Governor thinks court reporting can be done digitally, I wonder what he thinks of the digital sound in movies which has to be redone and enhanced by professional sound editors with salaries far and away more than court reporters. Are the courts to hire these people in place of the court reporters as well as people to transcribe from the digital recordings for records on appeal? Doesn’t sound like any savings to me. You will now need at least three people to do the job of one Court Reporter!!!!
June 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
This will be an utter and total disaster. Maybe it’s time the courts finally learn this and get behind the reporters instead of treating us like parasites. When we are hired back as freelancers, we should all charge double.
June 9th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Instead of having a court reporter there to say, “Could you please repeat that?” Governer Schwarzenegger’s comments would be transcribed as “(unintelligible)” from a recording. Nobody has the time to rewind the recorder that many times.
He is clueless. Let’s watch the California court system grind to a complete halt.
June 9th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
“Governor.” Argh! Don’t want to misspell on a reporter forum!
June 9th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
1800 officials phased out at the rate of 20% per year. Probably the first 360 will be a lot of officials retiring, since the furloughs represent a pension cut, and a lot of reporters of retirement age would want to avoid that. This is going to be very painful for those reporters who were looking forward to a pension and health plan but haven’t gotten enough years in and/or reached retirement age.
June 10th, 2009 at 9:53 am
The governor’s accent is the perfect example of why digital recording will not work.
June 10th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Let’s solve the budget by shifting court reporters to the unemployment line. The California legislature is so corrupt that they have to get “creative” to come up with budget cuts that don’t anger the big unions that keep them in office.
They won’t make the biggest savings possible — make sure state benefits actually go to citizens of the state. We would balance the budget if we serve our citizens with the benefits they’ve worked and paid for and not try to be the welfare program for third world countries.
June 10th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
After leaving three unposted comments – I will repeat: We’ll be back!!!
June 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Florida tried it and has found that the tapes are often unintelligible thus allowing muderers to go free following their appeals.