An Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) representative told the Appropriations Committee that the judiciary will ask the legislature for roughly $1.5 million a year to support the new CCID court and additional increases for youth-court intake and other judiciary needs.

The request matters because the CCID court cannot keep fines and fees: "The statute states that only all fines and fees collected go straight to Jackson, so this court will not be accepting any money for itself, so it'll have to be funded through the legislature," the AOC representative said. The AOC representative said the CCID court was funded a little over $730,000 last year and that "we've spent over half already, so we would ask that the new yearly budget be approximately $1,500,000." A committee member later referenced a $1.6 million figure when summarizing the request.

AOC described staffing needs and timing. The AOC representative said the CCID court will have two full-time judges and currently employs one clerk and two deputy clerks; a court administrator has not been hired and court-clerk duties will cover some administrative work. The representative said the court is scheduled to open later this month and that the office will provide updated budget sheets to legislative staff (Emily) once firm data are available.

Youth courts and intake were a central topic. The AOC representative said the legislature mandated a My Kids audit last year but did not fund it; AOC has released RFPs and "hope[s] to award a contract in the next couple of weeks," and said the final cost will depend on the awarded contract. AOC identified two potential funding sources it could use with legislative permission: about $635,000 in unspent youth-court support funds and roughly $350,000 left from an intake project; the latter must be used specifically for intake work.

AOC also said it is negotiating with the Department of Human Services (DHS) to transfer 28 personnel identification numbers (PINs) to AOC so those staff could serve as intake officers in counties. "We're in talks with DHS about transferring 28 PINs from their current budget to AOC, and those 28 PINs would be an additional intake worker, placed in counties throughout the state," the AOC representative said. The AOC representative estimated roughly $2,000,000 would be required to fund the 28 PINs for the fiscal year and said that figure will be provided to legislative staff.

On technology and case-management, AOC reported survey results and incremental changes to My Kids. The AOC representative said a survey of more than 200 end users showed "92% of the end users loved My Kids," and that AOC has added a function called MEC My Kids to allow attorneys to file documents through My Kids in a way similar to MEC.

Other budget items included a requested $2,000,000 increase to the Court of Appeals budget to address a recurring shortfall and a proposal to change a user fee tied to MEC. The AOC representative said MEC is self-sustaining and that the office is considering legislation to raise a fee from $10 to $25, with half the increase remaining with counties.

Court reporters drew extended attention as a system-wide problem. AOC said state-position court reporters have not had a pay increase in seven years and that pay is set by statute (currently about $245 per day or roughly $64,000 per year). "I've had judges calling saying they've had to cancel court because they can't find a court reporter," the AOC representative said. The office said it is considering a combination of options including a statutory pay increase, allowing limited freelancing under rules and exploring automated court reporting with human transcription as a contingency, though speakers emphasized concerns about replacing human jobs.

Committee members pressed for details and possible fixes. Chairman Hobson and other committee members asked whether state court reporters could take depositions or freelance when not assigned to court and whether counties that refuse to pay set salaries could be compelled to comply; responses acknowledged past rule changes and conflicts uncovered by courts, and AOC said it would work with the court system and report back with options. The AOC representative said it would provide updated budget asks and additional detail to Emily, the committee staff member.

Discussion points: the CCID court's statutory limits on keeping fines, an unresolved variance in the CCID funding ask (about $1.5M vs. $1.6M in committee remarks), the unfunded My Kids audit and available unspent youth-court and intake funds, a potential $2M ask to fund 28 PINs transferred from DHS, a $2M shortfall for the Court of Appeals, and court-reporter recruitment and pay issues.

No formal committee votes were recorded in the transcript excerpt provided.