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Chancery Court asks for $106,000 increase, cites rising costs and strong net revenues
Summary
Shelby County Chancery Court requested roughly $106,000 in additional funding for operations, research tools and higher judicial law-clerk pay, saying court-generated revenue typically returns substantial excess to the general fund.
Erin Hall, clerk and master of Shelby County Chancery Court, told the Budget and Finance subcommittee the office is asking for an increase of approximately $106,000 to its fiscal-year budget to cover operations and maintenance, legal-research tools and personnel costs.
"We're one of the few offices that have net revenue, and generally contribute quite a bit back to the general fund at the end of every fiscal year," Hall said, summarizing the court's revenue position. She told commissioners the office projects baseline revenue around $3,840,000 and, depending on tax-sale timing, could see revenue near $4.6 million this year — roughly 20% over budgeted projections.
Hall described the court's workload as substantial — roughly 2,200 lawsuits and about 62,000 docket entries annually — and said delinquent-tax-property lawsuits and associated commissions are a significant revenue source. She told the subcommittee the office typically sells several thousand parcels in tax sales and that timing and staffing affect how much revenue is realized in any given year.
The $106,000 request would cover a mix of small capital and operating needs: updated furnishings and equipment tied to courthouse constraints, a requested legal-research subscription (Hall cited roughly $12,000 for LexisNexis access), and higher pay for three judicial law clerks, which Hall estimated at about $27,000 per position including fringes. She said the court's own revenue would cover those increases.
Hall closed by asking commissioners whether they had questions; several members pressed for clarification on receipts, tax-sale cadence and integration with county finance systems. The subcommittee did not take a final vote on the Chancery Court request during the session.
