Judiciary seeks judges, continues court-technology rollout funded by ARPA

Boise — The Joint Finance Preparation Committee reviewed the Judicial Branch court operations budget Jan. 23, hearing from Division Manager Keith Bybee and Administrative Director of the Courts Sarah Omanson on technology upgrades, judge requests and staffing needs.

Keith Bybee, Division Manager of Budget Policy Analysis, told the committee the Judicial Branch averages about 372 full-time authorized positions, with roughly $57.1 million in personnel cost appropriations and historically spends about 93.5% of personnel-cost appropriations. He said the Court Technology Fund collections increased about 29% year over year — from $2.9 million in FY2023 to $3.4 million in FY2024 — and that the fund's projections are relatively flat going forward. Bybee noted the courts received about $19.9 million in ARPA State Fiscal Recovery funds in recent years to upgrade court technology; the branch has obligated those funds and requested re-appropriation of roughly $16 million to continue planned work.

Bybee outlined the judiciary's FY2026 requests, including judicial compensation (the branch's request of approximately $10.2 million; the governor included a 5% placeholder in the budget amounting to $1.717 million) and requests for new judicial resources: two district judges (First…