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Appropriations subcommittee reviews judiciary budget changes, flags judge pay and court costs
Summary
Subcommittee examined House changes to judiciary items including funding reductions tied to 33 judges who have not opted into a new pay structure, a $40,000 commuting-judge cost for the Court of Appeals, security contract shares, cloud-IT transition costs, and tax court rent/operations savings.
The subcommittee on appropriations for judicial reviewed House adjustments to several judiciary budget items Tuesday, examining funding implications for superior court judges, the Court of Appeals, and the Georgia Tax Court.
Budget staff explained that the House removed roughly half of a previously requested amount tied to a pay-structure change because 33 judges have not opted in; the staffer described the calculation as a per-judge rate multiplied by the number of judges not opting in plus a small prorated month for one judge who opted in in February. Chair Hatchett and members asked staff to confirm whether any judges were likely to opt in before the July 1 effective date; staff said it was unlikely because judges had not yet contacted retirement staff or the administrator.
Trent Brown, representing the Court of Appeals, described three House-approved items: about $40,000 to fully fund a commuting judge for fiscal 2026 (the judge commutes from Northwest Georgia), about $62,050 as the court’s portion of a shared security contract, and roughly $197,000 for an IT shift from hardware redundancy to cloud licensing. Committee members asked whether the security cost represented an exact one-half of the shared contract and whether previously spent internal funds used to temporarily cover a commuting judge’s pay would be backfilled; Brown said the court had internally funded part of the year and anticipated the appropriation would backfill what was already spent.
A Tax Court representative said the House removed funds for operations and contracts after discovering the tax court could use a judicial branch case-management system at little or no cost. The representative said rental savings will accrue because a new tax-court judge will share existing space, and the remaining funds would cover operational items and a staff attorney/administrator transition.
No formal votes occurred; the subcommittee requested follow-up data (confirmation of judges’ opt-in likelihood, a breakdown of security contract shares, and documentation of commuting-judge expenses) to inform final recommendations over the next few days.
The chair adjourned the meeting after the day’s witnesses finished their remarks.
