Rip Colvin, executive director of the Justice Administrative Commission, told the Senate appropriations subcommittee that JAC’s legislative budget request centers on two areas: readiness and implementation of the state's new accounting system (Florida PALM) and information-technology maintenance.

Colvin said the PALM go-live date pushed from July 2026 to January 2027 has increased staffing-augmentation needs. JAC’s earlier request of $550,000 has grown to just over $1,000,000 for contractor support; JAC also requested nine FTE and $1,100,000 for longer-term PALM implementation tasks.

Colvin outlined IT asks including about $294,000 for hybrid-cloud hardware replacement and roughly $150,000 for software renewals, placing the total PALM and IT ask at about $1.8 million.

On private court-appointed counsel, Colvin told senators the rates JAC pays are legislative rates set in the General Appropriations Act. He said the hourly rate structure — $100 per hour for capital cases and $75 per hour for noncapital cases — was established in 2007. "They haven't been increased since 02/2007," he told the committee, and said it may be an opportunity for the legislature to consider raising those rates.

Colvin also described JAC’s role administering payments to private attorneys and the agency's lean staffing (93 employees) and high transaction volume. Senators asked about the last rate increase and whether registry attorneys can decline appointments; Colvin said attorneys sign registry contracts with the agency and are expected to accept assigned cases under those rates.

No committee votes were recorded on JAC's requests during the meeting.