Chief Justice: KY courts are running short on cash, need to tap reserve fund
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky courts request $14.3M from reserve to cover Fiscal Year 2026 gap.
- Senate Bill 25 bars access to the $31.3M reserve without legislative approval.
- Judicial branch will seek budget increase in 2026 session to replenish funds.
Kentucky’s judicial branch is running short on money and needs permission from lawmakers to tap its piggy bank for $14.3 million, the chief justice said Thursday.
Because of Senate Bill 25, a law passed last winter by the General Assembly, the judicial branch can’t access money held in its Court of Justice reserve account unless legislators give their approval.
The reserve account held $31.3 million at the close of Fiscal Year 2025 on June 30. The judicial branch needs $14.3 million from the account to cover a budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2026, which began July 1, Chief Justice Debra Lambert told the Interim Joint Committee on the Judiciary in Frankfort.
Prior to the new law, the judicial branch could manage its budget shortfalls internally, without asking anyone for permission to move funds around, Lambert said.
“This isn’t any new spending expansion. It’s only accessing our own existing funds. In years past, we’ve had access to those moneys that were already appropriated to us,” Lambert said.
The judicial branch, which runs the statewide courts, will request more money in the next two-year state budget to cover its additional expenses and allow it to refill its reserve account, she said.
The judicial branch is budgeted to spend $521 million this fiscal year, largely from the state’s general fund but also from filing fees, criminal history records checks and other revenue it raises itself, according to the state budget.
Since 2010, the state courts have relied on increasing their own revenue and job vacancies to balance their budgets. But in a budget presentation made to a different legislative committee in September, the judicial branch said it needs about $14 million over its current base budget just to maintain its operations.
“We need to have some room for projected cost increases and inflation and nondiscretionary obligations. We’ll ask to replace the restricted funds with real funding,” Lambert told lawmakers on Thursday.
The General Assembly will write the next state budget during its legislative session this winter, starting in January.
None of the lawmakers on Thursday expressed opinions about the judicial branch’s current budget shortfall or its request to access its reserve account.
There was, however, some discussion among lawyers who sit on the committee about the hundreds of millions of dollars the judicial branch has spent building dozens of new courthouses across Kentucky over the last couple of decades.
New or renovated courthouses are currently on the way in Madison, Bath, Crittenden, Oldham, Scott, Barren, Butler, Clinton and Graves counties, plus the Court of Appeals building in Frankfort.
State Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, told Lambert he admires the “beautiful” Pike County Judicial Center that was built in his town 15 years ago, with six courtrooms and 20-foot ceilings. But Wheeler added that he’s never seen the place fully occupied when he practices law there.
“Do you feel like on some occasions we’re over-building these courthouses?” Wheeler asked.
Current plans for courthouse construction allow room for growth, but they’re not necessarily going to be as majestic as courthouses a few years ago, especially in areas where it’s understood the population is declining, Lambert replied.
“We’re trying to be as conservative as we can,” she said.
