Brief ⁽¹⁾

SB 506, as amended, concerns the Judicial Branch and would provide for an upgrade of nonjudicial employee salaries paid for from docket fee increases that the bill would impose. The bill also would expand the number of judges on the Court of Appeals from 10 to 14 over a four-year period beginning July 1, 2001, and ending July 1, 2004.

The bill would create the Judicial Branch Nonjudicial Salary Initiative Fund, into which would be credited revenues from increased docket fees. The Fund would be used to pay for an increase in salaries for nonjudicial personnel. The bill stipulates that the docket fee money could not be used to pay for salary increases for judges and contains a statement of intent that enactment of the legislation is not a commitment on the part of the Legislature to fund a more comprehensive and expensive salary plan initiative that was proposed by the Judicial Branch in its budget submission to the 2000 Legislature.

In addition to increasing docket fees to pay for the proposed salary upgrade, SB 506 also would increase the amount of docket fee receipts credited to the Access to Justice Fund. Proposed increases in docket fees are as follows:

SB 506, as amended, also would increase the number of judges on the Court of Appeals from 10 to 14. The increase would be incremental, with one new judge being added each year, beginning on July 1, 2001, and ending July 1, 2004. As is the case with judges currently on the Court of Appeals, the initial appointment of new judges would be for four years, after which they would be subject to retention elections.

Background

SB 506 originated as a response to a nonjudicial employee salary initiative proposed by the Judicial Branch that would have upgraded salaries, tied cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to increases in the inflation rate, implemented a performance-based pay plan for supervisory employees, and eliminated annual step increases in favor of less frequent but more meaningful increases. These changes would have cost an estimated $3.9 million in FY 2001, with additional increases over the years, and would have been funded from increases in docket fees.

Both the Senate and the House appointed subcommittees to consider the proposal and both subcommittees concluded that, even though docket fee increases would have paid for the initial upgrade of $3.9 million in FY 2001, the remaining components of the salary initiative proposal would have required funding from the State General Fund to augment docket fee funding. For that reason, both subcommittees, while proposing slightly different increases in docket fees, agreed that the Legislature should commit itself only to the first-year upgrade, which will increase salaries of nonjudicial employees by approximately $3.9 million and address concerns of the Judicial Branch about attracting and retaining qualified employees, particularly at the entry level. Because docket fees are expected to increase at a lower rate than salaries (an annual increase of 2.6 percent for docket fees compared to a 3.2 percent increase for salaries, based on salary increases for state employees over the last ten years), it is likely that maintenance of the FY 2001 upgrade at some point in the future will require funding from the State General Fund. Both subcommittees also provided for an increase in docket fee funding for the Access to Justice Fund. While expenditures from the Fund are not addressed in the bill, the subcommittees were concerned about generating additional revenue to the Fund that could be used to continue a contract in FY 2001 with Kansas Legal Services, Inc., for statewide foster care legal services, including training for guardians ad litem and other legal representation services related to juveniles.

The House Appropriations Committee amended SB 506 to incorporate HB 2856, which is the House Committee's version of the docket fee increase and nonjudicial salary upgrade. In addition, the House Committee amended to bill to incorporate the provisions of HB 3051, which would expand the Court of Appeals from 10 to 14 judges over a four-year period. As introduced, the bill would have begun the expansion July 1, 2000, but the House Committee delayed implementation of the expansion to July 1, 2001.

The docket fee increase proposed by the House Committee is expected to generate additional fees of $3,910,825 in FY 2001. The salary upgrade proposed by the Judicial Branch for FY 2001 would cost $3,892,392. The Office of Judicial Administration estimates that the fiscal impact of expanding the Court of Appeals would be $354,086 per judge, or a total of $1,416,344 for four new judges. The cost per judge consists of $134,110 for the judge's salary and benefits, $74,699 for salary and benefits for two staff positions (an Administrative Assistant and a Research Attorney), $9,250 for other operating expenses, $21,627 for one-time expenditures for furniture and office equipment, and $114,400 for one-time expenditures to renovate space to provide offices for the judge and associated staff. The office suites for the four additional judges would be located in space vacated by the Office of the Attorney General, which recently moved to the Memorial Building.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html