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Title
Trial Court Budget | Allocations from the Trial Court Trust Fund and Trial Court Allocations for Fiscal Year 2025-26
(Action Required)
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Summary
Summary
Government Code section 68502.5(c)(2)(A) requires the Judicial Council to make a preliminary allocation for the trial courts in July and finalize allocations in January of each fiscal year. The Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee recommends the Judicial Council allocate $3.076 billion to the trial courts, which includes $2.958 billion from the Trial Court Trust Fund and $117.8 million from the General Fund, for fiscal year (FY) 2025-26. The allocation reflects the $55 million ongoing reduction to trial court operations included in the Budget Act of 2024.
The proposed allocations, current revenue projections, and estimated savings from FY 2024-25 appropriations will result in a fund balance of $151.8 million ($41.7 million is unrestricted) in the Trial Court Trust Fund for FY 2025-26.
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Recommendation
Recommendation
The Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee recommends that the Judicial Council, effective July 18, 2025:
1. Approve the standard annual updates to the Workload Formula model, including updated filings, salary, benefits, operating expenditures and equipment, Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and court executive officer salary data, and continue to use the existing 2017 caseweights in the Workload Formula calculations for FY
2025-26. This results in a statewide funding percentage of 85.9 percent;
2. Approve the deferral of the updated 2024 caseweights in the Workload Formula calculations to FY 2026-27 to allow time for evaluation of the changes in the weights and their impact on funding allocations to the trial courts;
3. Approve base, discretionary, and nondiscretionary program allocations from the Trial Court Trust Fund and General Fund in the amount of $3.076 billion, including any needed technical adjustments and contingent on funding included in the enacted budget for FY 2025-26:
a. General Fund allocation of $68.8 million for employee benefits; and
b. As a subset of the $3.076 billion total allocation, a Workload Formula allocation of $2.571 billion based on methodologies approved by the Judicial Council; and
4. Approve the delegation of authority to the Administrative Director of the Judicial Council to authorize baseline technical adjustments for Trial Court Trust Fund allocations, up to a maximum of 10 percent of specific allocations, to allow for the efficient implementation of required budgetary adjustments.
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Speakers
Speakers
Hon. Jonathan B. Conklin, Chair, Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee
Mr. Zlatko Theodorovic, Budget Services