Judiciary asks for judges, continues court-technology rollout funded by ARPA

The Idaho Judicial Branch presented its Court Operations budget Jan. 23, asking the Joint Finance Preparation Committee to consider requests for new judges, ongoing judicial compensation changes and continued funding for a statewide court-technology modernization funded with ARPA State Fiscal Recovery funds.

Administrative Director of Courts Sarah Omanson told the committee the judiciary has obligated ARPA funds to upgrade infrastructure, roll out Office 365 and multi-factor authentication, and to create a state-managed network in courthouses: "We started really focusing on cybersecurity," she said. Omanson said the work is intended to protect sensitive court records and to centralize and secure the systems county clerks use for court business.

Omanson described options counties may choose. Counties can continue to use county-managed computers but must access court systems using a state-hosted desktop in the cloud, or accept state-provided machines on the state network for court work. She said Office 365 rollout is about 80% complete and two-factor authentication is about to roll out, and the overall modernization work is expected to finish by the end of fiscal 2026. The judiciary said about $16,000,000 in ARPA-funded contracts remain obligated and reappropriation for that amount has been requested.

On judges and judicial resources, the branch asked for new judges and court reporters to respond to caseload growth and travel burdens that divert judicial time. The budget request included two district judges (one in the First Judicial District at Coeur d'Alene and one in the Seventh Judicial District at Idaho Falls), two magistrate judges (one in Twin Falls and one in Bonneville County) and two court reporters. The judiciary also requested a larger judicial compensation package; Omanson said the judiciary's request totals about $10.2 million while the governor included a 5% judicial compensation placeholder in his recommended budget.

Omanson explained the magistrate requests by caseload and geography: Twin Falls magistrates each opened about 1,773 cases per judge annually and "It has been 35 years since Twin Falls received a new magistrate," Omanson said. For Bonneville County she noted the Seventh Judicial District covers 20,000 square miles and that judges lose judicial work days to travel: "We lose currently 67 and a half days of work, judicial work, every year by judges traveling in from Salmon, from Challis, down to Bonneville County to hear cases." The branch asked counties to provide local facilities and judicial assistants as part of creating new judgeships.

Committee members asked for more detailed breakdowns of technology costs and staffing needs and requested estimates of what it would take to close hiring gaps after recent difficulties filling IT positions. Omanson described hiring challenges: several IT and data analyst positions remain unfilled despite repeated postings, and three of five data analysts left for higher-paying jobs.

On case-management software and vendor strategy, Omanson said the courts plan to issue a Request for Information to survey current market options—the judiciary currently uses Tyler (Odyssey) under a multi-year contract but will examine landscape options ahead of future contract decisions.

Omanson closed by warning the branch is seeing fewer applicants for judgeships and increasing retirements: "In this fiscal year alone, since July 1, we've had seven judges announce their retirement," she said, and "we have less than half the number of people applying for our judgeships than we had five years ago." The judiciary asked the committee to consider the magistrate requests and to support continued investments in court technology and staffing.

No formal funding decisions were made during the hearing; committee members asked the judiciary to provide fuller cost breakdowns of ARPA-funded technology contracts, the timeline for OITS support, and the judiciary's RFI plan for case-management options.