Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock, who had just taken office, told the Senate Finance Committee that improving judicial pay and staffing is essential to attract and retain judges and court staff capable of administering the state’s complex caseloads. “A first year lawyer out of law school … will be making more money than Chief Justice Nathan Hecht was making after 40 years of service,” Blacklock said, and he urged support for legislative steps to make judicial salaries more competitive.

Blacklock proposed a discussion that went beyond modest annual adjustments, noting the public‑policy consequences of an underpaid judiciary and urging the committee to pair compensation changes with measures that improve accountability and court performance. He specifically thanked Chair Huffman for filing a pay bill (noting a 15% proposal) and said the judiciary will work on internal fixes to address underperformance and public confidence.

LBB and the Office of Court Administration (OCA) provided concrete budgetary and program requests for the judiciary. LBB presented the fiscal effect of potential changes in the Judicial Compensation Commission’s recommendations and noted that the existing tenure/tier structure means that raising the base district‑judge salary creates follow‑on costs for justices, prosecutors and other tenure‑linked positions. LBB said recommendations in the introduced bill did not include a full article‑wide 6% salary increase requested for nonjudicial staff.

OCA Director Megan Lavoie presented exceptional items the agency seeks: a 6% staff retention and recruitment supplement, a 15% increase for child protection and child support court coordinators, a specialty court case management system to standardize data collection for more than 200 specialty courts, and a plan to replace “Thames,” the appellate case management system, with a hosted cloud solution to improve security and long‑term support. OCA noted the addition of five business court divisions and requested funding for the remaining six divisions authorized by last session’s law.

Why it matters: Judges' compensation, court staffing and modern case management systems affect court speed and quality of justice. The committee heard proposals that, if adopted, would increase recurring judicial compensation costs and devote funds to technology and coordination—each of which would require tradeoffs elsewhere in the budget.

Direct quote: Chief Justice Blacklock: “I am here on behalf of my fellow judges and on behalf of the entire Texas judiciary to tell you that I think it's absolutely essential that we as a state raise judicial salary significantly so that we can attract and retain hardworking rule of law judges.”