Appropriations committee trims and reallocates items in judiciary budget; approves targeted guardianship and GAL funding

The Appropriations - Education and Environment Division reviewed the judiciary branch budget (02/2002) and agreed to several targeted funding adjustments and clarifications of responsibility.

Senator Thomas briefed the committee on a short set of proposed changes and said the committee should move funding for the FTEs directly into the judiciary budget rather than keeping those positions funded elsewhere. He also recommended removing an accrued-leave payout line and said budgeting for those payouts can be covered from the vacant FTE pool.

The committee approved several specific additions by consensus: funding for an Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship at 80% of the requested amount (a proposed $1,500,000 request reduced to $1,200,000 to stand up four employees), $36,000 for the rural attorney recruitment/retention program (to continue paying recruited rural attorneys), and half of the requested Guardian ad Litem program increase (committee approved $470,000, half of the $935,000 request). Those actions were recorded as committee consensus rather than a roll-call vote.

State Court Administrator Sally (identified on the record as the state court administrator) walked the committee through the judiciary's one-time and operating requests, stressing the operational importance of courtroom audio/video systems across the state's roughly 100 courtrooms. Sally told the committee: "We have a hundred courtrooms out there. They're all integrated with sound and video. That's how we take our record, and that's also how we share resources." She described equipment nearing 15 years old and listed program needs including camera replacements, sound-rack updates, assisted listening devices for people with hearing aids, juror microphones and specific equipment for the Cass County courtroom.

Sally also highlighted interpreter costs and law-library subscription increases and noted county contracts for clerk-of-court services are contractual obligations the judiciary must fund; she said those contracts are entered the April before session and are already obligated. Alex, the committee budget staff, confirmed which items already appear on the long-sheet and noted some items (for example the cloud-hosting migration and accrued-leave line) had been handled in prior committee work.

Committee directions included: move judiciary FTE funding into the judiciary budget; leave the accrued-leave payout line at $0 because payouts can be paid from the vacant-FTE pool; and include the reduced (80%) funding for the Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship as an addition to the judiciary long-sheet. The committee asked staff to bring final recommended language and figures back at the next scheduled session for a formal vote.

Ending: The panel paused further action on the rest of the judiciary long sheet until staff reconciles the few items members flagged; members directed staff to present final recommendations the following morning.