Lawmakers hear wide-ranging budget requests for Oregon courts during HB 5012 hearing

Chief Justice Megan Flynn of the Oregon Supreme Court and other court leaders told the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety on Feb. 27 that House Bill 5012 includes what they called "critical investments" needed to maintain access to justice across the state.

Chief Justice Megan Flynn, chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, opened the hearing and asked the committee to consider "the critical investment that we are asking you to make in Oregon State court system," and called attention to written testimony filed for related bills including requests for additional circuit judges and competitive judicial salaries.

The hearing featured a sequence of witnesses — judges, county officials, law-enforcement leaders, bar organizations and legal-aid providers — who supported a set of policy option packages (POPs) in HB 5012. The most frequently cited requests were funds for courthouse planning and replacement (POP 118 and POP 120), enhanced court security (POP 101), additional judicial positions (POP 108), judicial compensation (POP 102), and expanded civil and immigration legal services (POP 130).

Deputy State Court Administrator Phil Lehi framed several of the capital requests and clarified one budget classification for the record: "Slide 187 said the funds for POP 120 was 105,600,000 general fund. Those actually are bond proceeds, so should be classified as other funds," he said, and said the court would submit a corrected slide.

Why it matters: supporters told the committee that courts across Oregon are coping with rising caseloads, aging and unsafe facilities, security gaps and staff shortages that they said impair timely access to hearings and public safety.

Presiding Judge Jay McAlpin of Lane County, speaking for Oregon's presiding judges, highlighted workload statistics to make the case for more judges and staff and for judicial pay: "In 02/2024, Oregon circuit courts accepted 600,000 filings," he said, and later warned that "the combination of overworked and under compensated judges is nothing less than an impending crisis." McAlpin and other speakers urged funding for POP 102 (judicial compensation) and POP 108 (additional judicial positions).

Judge Rebecca Guptill of Washington County said lack of space in her county's courthouses prevents the courts from operating safely and accessibly. "We're bursting at our seams," Judge Guptill said, citing ADA noncompliance, jury rooms that cannot accommodate people using wheelchairs, and a judge forced to move between courtrooms with a shopping cart. Washington County is requesting $1,250,000 in POP 118 for replacement planning, witnesses said.

County officials described similar facility problems. Polk County Commissioner Lyle Mordhorst said Polk County's courtrooms span multiple historic and annex buildings that "do not come close to meeting current design and security standards," and Polk's presiding judge Rafael Caso cited concerns about mobility access, lack of security screening and moving incarcerated people through public hallways.

On court security, Sheriff Lane McGill of the Oregon State Sheriffs Association told the committee that only 19 of Oregon's 36 circuit courthouses currently have screening stations, and cited statewide incident reports: "Between January and September of '24, more than 450 security incidents were reported statewide," including assaults, threats and disruptive conduct. Many organizations — including the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police, represented by Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz — urged support for POP 101, a pilot to install screening and security improvements in eight counties.

Public-safety-oriented POPs also included requests tied to recent criminal-justice changes. Chief Krantz and other witnesses urged funding for POP 105 (resources tied to workload increases from House Bill 4002) and POP 114 (increased Release Assistance Officer staffing in courts), arguing that staffing shortfalls delay arraignments and pretrial reports.

Legal-aid organizations asked the committee to maintain and increase state funding for civil and immigration legal services. Karen Farkas, director of the Oregon State Bar's legal services program, and Erica Henty, executive director of the Oregon Law Center, supported POP 130 and described a combined request of $9,850,000: Henty said the POP would direct $4,350,000 toward strengthening statewide civil legal aid and $5,500,000 toward immigration legal services that currently lack long-term funding. Henty warned that without the requested increase legal-aid providers would have to reduce staff, cut rural offices or shrink eviction-prevention work.

Other testimony covered additional facets of the OJD budget: county law libraries (testimony urged roughly $11.5 million as a no-cuts baseline), court-connected family-mediation services (a requested $3.2 million to avoid service reductions), and appellate-court support (requests for additional court managers, paralegals and temporary law clerks to "front-load" appellate work and reduce backlog).

Stakeholders who spoke in favor of full or partial funding included the Association of Oregon Counties, county government representatives, the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon District Attorneys Association, defense organizations, the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, the Oregon Association of Community Corrections Directors, and nonprofit providers delivering legal and social services.

What the court asked the committee to approve: examples of items cited by multiple witnesses during the hearing include planning funds for individual county courthouse projects (examples: Malheur County requested $250,000 for a planning study; Polk County requested $325,000 for Polk County Justice Center planning; Washington County requested $1,250,000 for replacement planning), funding to pilot screening stations in eight counties (POP 101), additional judges and staff (POP 108 and related requests), increased judicial compensation (POP 102), and an infusion for civil and immigration legal services (POP 130).

Closing notes: Chief Justice Flynn and several witnesses emphasized the interdependence of courthouse facilities, security, staffing and public trust. Phil Lehi reminded the committee of the technical mechanics behind some requests — noting that bond proceeds flow to counties and matching funds are returned for expenditure limitation purposes — and said staff would submit corrected budget slides. The subcommittee closed the public hearing after taking testimony from a broad coalition of court users and partners; no formal vote was held during the session.

The committee asked presenters to provide additional information and written materials to the record; the public comment period remained open for 48 hours after the hearing, per the chair.