Office of Administrative Hearings director warns of funding strain after drop in billable hours

Hope Hogan, director of the Office of Administrative Hearings, told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the office faces a budget challenge after a sustained drop in billable hours.

Hogan testified during a public hearing on Senate Bill 2017, which would appropriate funds to defray the office’s expenses. The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) is funded through fees it bills to state and local agencies and does not receive general fund dollars.

The office has seen caseload fluctuations and billing changes that reduced revenue even as some workloads remain steady. "We are completely funded through special funds," Hogan said, and added that "the decrease in hours presents a challenge for us." She told senators she recently raised the office’s hourly billing rate to try to respond to the revenue shortfall.

Hogan gave committee members a summary of caseload and performance metrics. OAH received 446 hearing requests in calendar year 2023 and 499 in 2024, a combined 945 requests for those two years; the prior two-year period (2021–22) had 768 requests. For the first 18 months of the current biennium she said the office received 720 requests from 26 agencies. Attachment summaries in her memo showed about 65% of hearing requests in 2023–24 went to hearing, down slightly from 66% in the prior two years.…