From social services to transportation, departments and agencies face budget pinches as legislators scrape together funds to help rebuild communities devastated by last year’s storm. But the hiring freeze imposed on court systems is more than a pinch. It’s a serious squeeze that underscores the need for state legislators to address the longterm problem of marginal and inequitable staffing in many of the state’s judicial districts.

In Rowan County, the freeze left District Attorney Bill Kenerly unable to replace an assistant district attorney who resigned in January. One position might not sound like a big deal. But for Kenerly, who is allotted five assistant D.A.’s, it’s an immediate 20 percent cutback in an office that needs more district attorneys, not fewer, to keep up with increasing caseloads. The result will be a backlog of Superior Court cases that could take a year to process.

In urban areas such as Charlotte, understaffing of prosecutors has reached such a crisis point that it’s perceived as a threat to public safety and city officials have considered suing the state. Mecklenburg County prosecutors throw out more than half the 8,000 felony cases police bring them each year, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The problem, according to judicial officials, lies not only in marginal funding for their offices, but inequities that favor rural areas over more urban ones. The state’s 39 judicial districts are funded using a formula that’s based on population, caseloads and the number of counties in the district, but politics also plays a role in how resources are divvied up, with resulting inequities even among rural areas.

For example, it’s hard to follow a formula that allocates only five assistant D.A.’s to Rowan, which has a population of about 127,000, while Halifax County, with only 55,000 people, has four assistant D.A.’s, the number Kenerly is working with under the hiring freeze.

Former Judge Tom Ross, who heads the State Administrative Office of the Courts, plans to seek a 10 percent funding boost for the system in this year’s legislative session. Given existing budget restraints, it’s probably a bad year to go begging in Raleigh, although this is one area that sorely needs help.

One thing legislators can do, however, is re-examine how the existing judicial resources are allocated and ensure more equitable distribution of them. They also need to give local judicial districts more autonomy in determining how those resources are used.