On Friday, May 17th, Governor Reynolds signed into law the Judicial Branch Appropriations Bill (SF 616). For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2019 (FY 20), the legislature appropriated and the governor approved $181,126,293. This amount is $3.6 million more than the FY 19 judicial branch appropriation. Another $3.1 million was also authorized for the jury and witness fund; this amount is consistent with the allocation provided in past years. I am also pleased to note that new annual salary rates equating to a 2% increase for judicial officers were specified in the bill.
With regard to miscellaneous items, language is again included stating that the judicial branch operate clerk of court offices in all 99 counties and be accessible to the public as much as reasonably possible. What is different this year, though, is an additional sentence stating that clerk offices shall be open during regular courthouse hours. Other miscellaneous items include a provision directing us to again focus on the collection of delinquent fines and fees.
With regard to one-time allocations for capital projects in the Infrastructure Appropriations Bill (HF765), the judicial branch received $193,620 for furniture and equipment related to capital improvements being made in Johnson, Dallas and Floyd counties.
Concerning juvenile related matters, in the Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations Bill (HF766), DECAT funding and court ordered services remained steady (after rounding) at $1,717,000 and $3,290,000 respectively. The allocation for juvenile delinquent graduated sanctions came in at $12,253,000, also no change (after rounding) from the previous fiscal year. This year’s HHS bill also included a provision that calls for the division of criminal and juvenile justice planning (CJJP) to convene a work group to develop a plan to transfer the administration of graduated sanctions and court-ordered services and funding for the oversight of group foster care placements from DHS to the state court administrator (SCA). The plan developed by this committee is to ensure that the office of the SCA has the capacity, resources, and expertise to manage the funding and services effectively. A report of the findings and recommendations of the work group, which includes a plan to implement the recommendations by July 1, 2021, is to be submitted to the governor and the general assembly by December 15, 2019.
As you know, there are multiple steps in the budgeting process: The legislature passes an appropriation’s bill; the governor signs it into law; the state court administrator presents a recommended budget and the supreme court makes the final decision on how to allocate the dollars subject to specific provisions in the law. For FY 20, the supreme court has approved the following highlighted items in addition to those already noted above:
- A 2.1% across the board increase for all contract and non-contract employees;
- The hiring of four additional juvenile court officers (placement to be determined in accordance with the workload formula);
- The adjustment of pay grades for assistant district court administrators and staff attorneys based on the findings of a recent reclassification study;
- The filling of two long-standing vacant assistant district court administrator positions in D1 and D3;
- The establishment of a juvenile court services director and quality assurance position in keeping with the SMART report recommendations;
- The establishment of a problem solving court coordinator position in keeping with the recommendations from the NCSC reports;
- A new hardware field support position for JBIT; and,
- Seed funding for two distributive work processing pilot sites to maintain the momentum of the work done by the clerk’s minimum staffing committee.
Merit or step increases are not included in this year’s budget. The 2% increase for all judicial officers and the 2.1% across the board increase for all contract and non-contract employees totals $3.5 MM. As such, there are not sufficient funds to effect any step increases.
I hope you can appreciate our desire to maximize the reach of the limited dollars available and the delicate balance we are attempting to achieve. Please know that we have a deep appreciation for the hard work you are performing on a daily basis and we will never cease in our advocacy to obtain the resources you need to properly serve the public.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if there are any questions or if I can be of further service. Additional budget information is publicly available on the judicial branch website at https://www.iowacourts.gov/iowa-courts/fy-20-budget/. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Todd Nuccio
State Court Administrator