During this year's legislative session, lawmakers passed the state's judicial branches budget for the next two fiscal years.

The Administrative Office of the courts argued the budget underfunded court operations by 14 million the first year and 18 million the second year.

Today, Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Deborah Henry Lambert told lawmakers about the changes that have been implemented under the new budget.

Here's more from Kentucky additions Clayton Dalton.

Earlier this year, Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Henry Lambert said budget cuts could force the judicial branch to eliminate programs like drug, mental health and veterans treatment courts.

Today in Frankfurt, she shared about the court systems reorganization and layoffs to adjust to the new budget.

Most of the eliminated positions were management positions, and at the outset of the reorganization, we eliminated 170 tenured and non tenured positions.

I also directed several new positions be established, many of which were frontline workers with retirements and other voluntary exits from kickoff.

Ultimately, only 11 employees were separated under the reorganization.

We're now operating within our appropriation.

But doing so has required some difficult decisions.

Post reorganization, we now operate with 86 fewer positions across management.

Lambert said there is a silver lining to this challenging situation.

The judicial branch is general fund.

Budget is now structurally balanced.

For the first time since 2010.

That means we expect to cover our budgeted expenses within the amount you appropriated us, without relying on savings from vacant positions, one time funds or other temporary measures.

But even with a balanced budget, problems remain.

Lambert said recruiting and retaining employees is particularly challenging.

The reality just is that we struggle to recruit and retain the people we need to do our vital work for the citizens.

Our study from the fall of 2025 showed us that 99% of the studied non-elected positions are paid at under market benchmarks.

As an example, on average, judicial branch staff attorneys are paid 25% below the comparison market, and many other critical positions are paid 15% or more below the market.

Securing funding to correct the salary disparities is critical to the retention of judicial branch talent.

In the 2028 session, we will again ask you to provide sufficient funding for salary improvements that will permit us to recruit and retain qualified employees.

National center for State Court data also shows that Kentucky's district and circuit judge salaries ranked 49th in the nation, and lagged bordering states by 10 to 15%.

Contrast that to 20 years ago, when Kentucky judges salaries were ranked 20th in the nation.

From 2009 to 2017, Kentucky judges salaries were kept unchanged, while in that same time frame, the rest of the nation increased judicial salaries by an average of 24%.

The General Assembly did allocate $1 million this budget session to conduct a compensation study of the judicial branch, to include recommendations for potential adjustments to ensure equitable and competitive compensation practices.

End quote.

Those recommendations must be submitted to the state legislature by July 1st, 2027.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Clayton Dalton.