Judicial branch budget finalized

A Senate-Assembly budget panel voted Thursday on final details of a $112.7 million, two-year spending plan for Nevada's judicial branch.

State general fund dollars account for $55 million of the total, up about 12 percent from the amount approved for the current two-year budget. The rest of the new budget comes mostly from administrative assessments such as fees charged to defendants in criminal and traffic cases.

The increase in general fund dollars is because of a $6.6 million increase in salaries for district court judges, whose base salaries have increased from $130,000 to $160,000.

Also, there are eight new District Court judges. There's also a $245,000 increase in funds for the judges' retirement system.

While the overall budget is up, increasing court fees allowed for a $763,000 reduction in the general fund dollars. Ron Titus, state court administrator, added that four new positions in his agency weren't funded by state dollars.

"We recognize the economic position the state is in, so we want to provide what assistance we can," Titus said.

The subcommittee also voted for four percent salary reductions for judicial system staffers, instead of the six percent proposed in the governor's budget. Judiciary representatives previously said that any salary reductions would affect their ability to retain and recruit employees.

The subcommittee also voted to suspend the judicial employees' merit and longevity pay. There also are reductions in active employee and retiree subsidies for group health insurance.

Not included in the judicial branch budget is a plan for higher filing fees that would generate more than $9 million a year, mainly in Las Vegas, to help to pay for 10 new judges needed because of big caseload increases.

Under AB64 and AB65, the increased fees for filing various court documents would help pay for nine new district judgeships in the Las Vegas area, bringing the total there to 52, and one new judgeship in the Reno area, raising its total to 15.