On day two of the Wyoming Legislature’s interim Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) hearings on the state budget, lawmakers heard from attorneys and officials in the judicial branch about their financial needs for the next two years.
The hearing on Dec. 2 is part of a marathon of meetings the JAC holds before each legislative budget session to parse the governor’s proposal and hear agency leaders’ rationale for their budget requests.
In January, lawmakers will have the chance to mark up the governor’s request, eventually sending it down the hall to the House and Senate during the legislative session starting Feb. 9.
Day two kicked off with state Supreme Court Chief Justice Lynne Boomgaarden and her deputies, who spoke about the need for increased funding to upgrade rapidly aging remote court proceedings technology.
That upgrade would help litigants who don’t live in Wyoming, public defenders who are stretched thin and can’t be in-person – especially those in Campbell County, which Boomgaarden noted has a dire shortage – and court reporters, the latter of which there is also a statewide shortage.
“That remote capability, also, when you go to trial or various hearings, it allows the victims to not have to be in the same location or same room as the defendant,” said Boomgaarden. “And that's an important factor for victim protection and victim rights.”
Elisa Butler, the state court administrator, put the issue of aging tech in stark terms.
“We are kind of staring down the barrel of a gun here, because we will really begin to have to look at cutting specific things out of those technology budgets moving forward if we don't get some relief,” said Butler. “That will affect citizens, it will affect the courts, it will affect litigants. I can't really stress enough how important it is that we continue to be funded so we can continue to operate in the way that we would like.”
To help ease the problem, Boomgaarden and other officials proposed reorganizing a special revenue account the judicial branch uses that’s funded by court users who take advantage of remote court capabilities.
The officials asked for permission to move 13 full-time employees who help keep the remote system running from being funded by the account to being funded by the state’s general fund. They also came with paper in hand: A bill draft that would increase online court filing fees to $20, thereby raising revenue to the account as well.
If no action is taken, they said that account will reach insolvency by fiscal year 2029.
The filing fee increase didn’t appear to land well with lawmakers like Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette), a member of the further-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus and the JAC’s cochair.
“As we contemplate an increase in fees, I consider that a tax increase,” said Bear. “We certainly want to make sure that we're not creating a bigger problem.”
The state Freedom Caucus has said it wants to bring the state budget to a “pre-COVID level of spending” without going into detail on how they plan to do it.
Bear also said he’d like the judicial branch to keep the JAC better informed going forward on the status of the embattled revenue account.
Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Jackson) agreed with Bear on the need for more communication.
Later in the day, district attorneys for two of Wyoming’s largest judicial districts spoke about an increase in violence.
“Frankly, we're seeing violent crime on the rise. But among the youth, if you will, in Natrona County, we've had a series of horrific murders,” said Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen, who asked the JAC for three new positions in his office.
Attorneys also discussed a legal representation desert in southwest Wyoming.
“If you are in Uinta County, Wyoming, and for example, you want an attorney to represent you on [a] divorce, one party runs to [one firm], and the other attorney gets to find somebody out of town, because we have one law firm that handles those cases,” said Loretta Howieson Kallas, the Uinta County prosecuting attorney.
The JAC’s hearings will continue on Dec. 3 with discussions around raising state employee wages and other tech upgrades.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
