Blake Shuart: Underfunding of Kansas courts affects us all
Life has been anything but certain for the past year, and nothing is more important during times of uncertainty than a stable court system. We turn to our courts to redress injustice and keep us safe. “You can’t do that” would be an empty four-word sentence without a judge and jury to stand behind it. Like every governmental function, courts require money to run effectively. And like everything that runs on money these days, our courts are struggling more than ever on the heels of a life-altering pandemic.
While most Kansans understand that our Legislature controls the budget for our judicial branch, most of us don’t know the details of what goes on between the line-items. Our lawmakers have had a bad habit of underfunding our courts for years — another political tug-of-war that benefits no one but makes for good sound bites on the stump. While some of the judiciary’s budget goes to lawyers — our judges are lawyers, and woefully underpaid ones at that — most of it goes to the bevvy of other hard-working Kansans who keep our courts running behind the scenes. But our judges and court personnel are not being paid fairly for their hard work, sending them to neighboring states with Legislatures that prioritize justice. We’re losing in Kansas — and losing big.
In a July 2020 survey, the National Center for State Courts found that salaries for Kansas District Court judges rank 48th among the 50 states, placing them way out of line with our neighbors.
Our judicial branch employees help pay their own freight, collecting nearly $50 million for the state in fines, fees, restitution, judgments and bonds in FY 2020. But these employees, the engine that makes our system run, are paid anywhere from 2.7% to 18.9% below market. And that figure accounts only for those who are working — the courts themselves are severely understaffed, and vacancies are more pronounced than ever due to COVID-19 and the resulting lack of revenue from filing fees and other revenue sources. The workload of our court services officers far exceeds the number of available staff, and the underpaid workers who have stuck it out are more overworked than ever. Even in a normal situation, our courts would be in danger of collapse.
But this is no normal situation. Our courts are now under immense pressure to seat juries, conduct trials and move cases after the justice system ground to a halt in spring 2020. Even with sufficient funding, our courts would be stressed. But our lawmakers now ask the courts to solve their constituents’ problems and bring criminals to justice at a faster pace than normal, and with even less money. The backlog spills over into other areas of government — including jails — and out onto our streets.
Talk about underfunding of our courts is not just about fair pay and recruiting talent; the Legislature’s underfunding of our judicial branch places all of us at risk. It’s time to shine a bright light on this problem by demanding our Legislative branch support its co-equal branch of government with an appropriate budget. Put more simply: It’s time to fund our courts.