State courts press to protect positions and seek higher security pay
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Summary
The Vermont State Courts asked the committee to avoid vacancy-savings cuts that would force layoffs, sought to convert limited-service positions into permanent roles (with a referenced sunset date), and requested an increase in court-security (sheriff) hourly pay from roughly $57 to $75; members requested more data on costs and contract differences.
Committee members spent substantial time discussing the Vermont State Courts’ requests for staffing and security funding. The courts asked the committee not to impose vacancy-savings targets that would require layoffs, and they requested converting several limited-service positions (26 core positions cited) to more permanent roles to retain staff and reduce turnover.
Members emphasized the temporary purpose of many limited-service hires — to address COVID-era backlogs — and debated the fiscal effect of converting those roles to permanent positions. Speaker 5 said the sunset year for some limited-service positions had been recorded as "2030" in committee notes, and members asked staff to verify that date before endorsing permanent status.
On security, Speaker 4 supported raising the hourly sheriff/security rate from about $57 to $75. "I'm fully supportive of increasing the hourly rate from 57 to 75," Speaker 4 said; other members warned that the change could total millions in additional spending and asked for a comparison between executive-branch contracts and judiciary contracts to justify the increase.
Members also discussed whether the judiciary’s vacancy-savings assumptions are realistic. Several said the term 'vacancy savings' can mask the reality that achieving those savings may require furloughs or staff cuts; Speaker 1 agreed to ask staff (Trevor) to provide an overview of the vacancy-savings methodology.
Next steps: staff was asked to confirm the sunset dates for limited-service positions, to model the budget impact of converting positions to permanent status, and to compare contracting terms that would support any sheriff/security pay changes.