TOPEKA—The cost of going to court in Kansas is going up beginning today with the implementation of a temporary $10 surcharge on most kinds of cases being added to court filing fees.
Chief Justice Robert E. Davis wrote in the order implementing the surcharge that the additional court fees were ordered because of a $15.9 million cut in the state court system budget. The surcharge means the cost of filing such cases as felonies and civil matters, including divorces, will now be $183 and $166, respectively. The complete range of fees is online at Judicial Branch website, www.kscourts.org.
The surcharge is projected to restore approximately $5 million of the budget shortfall. Other actions by the Supreme Court that have been taken so far are projected to make up another $2.8 million of the budget cuts. The Court also has applied for a $2.6 million grant as part of federal stimulus program. The balance is to be sought from the 2010 Legislature as supplemental funding, something both the governor and the legislative leadership have said they would try to secure.
However, if the grant application is unsuccessful and no supplemental funding is approved, the remainder of the court system deficit may be required to be saved through 30 days of furlough of all non-judicial employees beginning in January. That means courts across Kansas would have to close one week of each month of the second half of the fiscal year.
Davis said the "cut and resulting court closings would have devastating consequences for our most vulnerable Kansas citizens. Children in need of care, persons seeking protection from abuse and protection from stalking, and persons and their families who are seeking mental health or substance abuse treatment all would be placed at risk."
He added that "court services officers would be less available to supervise persons convicted of misdemeanor and felony offenses" and that everyone in the courts would struggle to meet filing and other deadlines required by speedy trial and other Kansas statutes.
"We have made and will continue to make every effort to reduce expenditures as much as possible, but with almost 98 percent of our State General Fund budget needed to pay salaries and wages, savings of this magnitude will not be possible. As has always been the case, the Judicial Branch has no option other than reducing salary expenditures in order to meet a budget cut of any significance."
Davis said he knew going into the 2009 legislative session that, given the state of the economy, it was inevitable that every state budget would be cut. The Judicial Branch was prepared for this eventuality and to accept cuts commensurate with those expected of all state-funded entities. However, the final budget reduction that undercut the basic court maintenance budget by $15,900,055 million from $112,878,918 to $96,978,863 is devastating, he said.
Surcharge chart