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Judicial branch asks for 12% budget increase, cites staffing, accessibility and service-cost pressures
Summary
State court administration briefed the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on budget requests for FY2026–27, seeking a roughly 12% increase to address compensation, digital accessibility, rising interpreter and psychological examiner costs, and jury pay.
Jeff Schorba, State Court Administrator, told the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Jan. 22 that the Judicial Branch seeks support for its FY2026–27 biennial budget request, describing an approximately 12% increase to the branch’s base budget to meet operational and statutory obligations.
The request, Schorba said, is driven by personnel and mandated service costs. "Justice delayed is justice denied," he said, arguing the branch must maintain competitive pay to retain and recruit judges and roughly 2,800 court staff who process about 1,000,000 filings a year. He described the FY2025 appropriation level as about $479,000,000 and said last session the branch received roughly $86,000,000 in ongoing…
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