Council staff report roughly $4 million in outstanding court costs and fines; collection strategies discussed

County budget staff reported an outstanding balance of about $4,000,008.37 in unpaid court costs, fines and fees as of a June 2024 extract across five courts. Council members discussed several approaches to improving collections, including authorizing the treasurer to participate in the Trex tax-intercept program, expanding use of state tax-return intercepts ("trucks"/tax intercept programs) for other debts, and contracting with private collection agencies.

Staff noted limits on county control: clerks and courts administer some collection activities and some collection tools (like court collections or clerk-side intercepts) require local office cooperation. The county clerk and the probation office were mentioned as parties that may need to coordinate when adopting new tools. A county staff member said some agencies already use tax-intercept tools successfully for child-support and other obligations and that the county's recently approved collection agency for the corporation has a strong return rate.

Why it matters: improving collections could increase county revenue available for services and reduce the need for deeper operating balances or other offsets. Council members asked staff to provide up-to-date spreadsheets and to identify any legal or process barriers to applying intercepts and collection-agency tools to court fees and other arrears.

Next steps: staff said they would re-run the outstanding-balances report and provide updated, name- or case-linked detail to the council and relevant stakeholders and assess whether Trex or other intercepts could be applied to non-tax debts subject to proper legal notice.