When the legislature convenes in regular session in January, lawmakers will consider changing how district courts are funded.
The outcome will be important throughout the judicial system. It will influence how judges’ salaries are paid. It will impact the budgets of city, county and state governments. The legislature’s decisions will significantly affect people who are ordered to pay fines and restitution.
The blueprint for change was finalized last week by the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary, which have been working on potential reforms of court finances since last year’s legislative session. Act 38 of 2023 required the committees to study the issue and report its findings by October 1.
One proposal is to eliminate an existing agreement that has the state and local governments all share in paying judicial salaries.
Another proposal would repeal the current $10 a month fee charged to people who pay off fines and court costs in installments. The Judiciary Committees heard testimony that some people owe more because of accumulated $10-a-month fees than they owe for their original traffic fine.
County governments have a vested interest in this issue. According to the Association of Arkansas Counties, the 75 counties in Arkansas spend at least $46 million a year on the operations of local judicial systems. The amount is likely higher, because the $46 million figure was compiled 10 years ago.
Now, cities and counties contribute $58,650 toward the salary of each local district judge. That is half of the base cost of judges’ salaries. State government pays the other half.
Beginning January 1, there will be 70 full-time district judges in Arkansas. If the state pays their entire salaries, the state will incur an additional $4.1 million a year in costs, and local governments will save that amount.
The current system of collecting court costs and fees, although better than it was in the past, is a confusing patchwork. Fees and court costs go into a state Administration of Justice Fund, which last year provided $39.3 million in funding for 21 separate programs.
Some of those programs are connected to the court system, such as the Arkansas Judicial Retirement Fund. Others are not directly connected to operations of the judicial system, such as programs for traffic safety and drug abuse prevention. As Act 38 says: “Many of the court costs, fees, and fines assessed by the court system have little or nothing to do with the operations of an individual court or the court system…”
Eliminating disparities has been a legislative priority since 1995, when the General Assembly passed Act 1256 to provide for uniform filing fees and court costs. Act 1256 was prompted by the fact that the system of fees and fines created inequity in the level of judicial services available to Arkansas citizens.
Furthermore, according to Act 1256, the judicial funding system had become so complex as to make administration impossible. This mattered to law enforcement agencies because unreliable reporting of criminal statistics made it impossible to compile accurate data on crime rates.
It mattered to ordinary people who wanted to file a civil suit, or were defendants in a lawsuit. In some counties it might take six months to get a court date, but in a different county it might take more than a year.
