Judicial Branch

• Jurisdiction: Kansas,United States
• Pages: 18
• Citation: Vol. 92 No. 2 Pg. 18
• Publication year: 2023

Judicial Branch 92 J. Kan. Bar Assn 2, 18 (2023) Kansas Bar Journal April, 2023

March, 2023

Judicial Branch

Judicial Branch Budget Update

By Shawn Jurgensen, Special Counsel to Chief Justice Marla Luckert

One year ago, I used this column to highlight the three legacy issues that have plagued judicial branch operations for decades: under-market employee salaries, the branch's reliance on unreliable and volatile fee funding, and uncompetitive judicial salaries. At that time, the Kansas Legislature had just addressed one of those three by agreeing to bring the pay of every judicial branch employee up to the 2021 market rate. I asked for your help to fix the second of those three: the court system's reliance on unreliable and volatile fee funding. Today, I will share last year's good news and again ask for your help, this time with the third and most difficult legacy issue, judge pay.

Transformational Changes

The 2022 Legislature and Gov. Laura Kelly addressed the first two legacy issues, starting with their approval in April of 2022 HB 2541, which moved judicial branch core funding away from court user fees. For years, the judicial branch had operated on this unpredictable funding source. Now, branch core operations are mostly funded by the state general fund. Many of you have long advocated for this change, and we are grateful for your support and celebrate this achievement with you.

Our goal to move core branch operations away from fee funding would not have been accomplished without the support of our legislative colleagues, primarily Senate and House leadership. Our effort began in fall 2021, and from day one we worked in partnership with leadership teams and their staff in both chambers. Please go out of your way to thank them for their support.

Next, the 2022 state budget provided cost-of-living adjustments to our employees to keep them at market rate and made strides toward addressing under-market judge pay. The judicial branch also received appropriations to create and fill 23 judgeship positions statewide, add much needed technical support positions to the Office of Judicial Administration, and to convert one district magistrate judge position to a district judge position in each of the 12th, 17th, and 24th judicial districts.

We thank the KBA and its members for helping us achieve these two goals. Now, these historic gains set the stage for 2023 and the opportunity to address the final legacy issue, under-market...