The salaries for court reporters and trial-court assistants are beset by inequities, but resolving them would cost several hundred thousand dollars a year under certain options, a legislative staff member told lawmakers Wednesday.
Employees with similar years of state government service can have vastly different salaries, and new hires sometimes make more money than longtime workers doing identical jobs, said Tony Robinson, personnel review administrator for the Bureau of Legislative Research.
The average salary for court reporters is $51,216 a year, and the average pay for trial-court assistants is $41,356 a year, he said. Each of the state’s 122 circuit judges is allowed to hire a trial-court assistant and a court reporter.
The average salaries for court reporters and trial-court assistants in Arkansas are similar to the pay for their peers in other Southern states, Robinson told the Legislative Council’s personnel subcommittee.
The disparities exist because some judges have requested larger salaries for their staffs while other judges haven’t, Robinson said. Some new employees also receive higher salaries based on their previous work experience, he added.
Subcommittee Co-chairman Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, said he doesn’t know whether the average salary for the court reporters and trial-court assistants “is the right place” for their pay level.
He said the personnel subcommittee hasn’t considered circuit judges’ requests for extraordinary salary increases for their court reporters and trial-court assistants since 2011 because it appeared salaries for some of these employees were already “out of whack,” and the state had a difficult time paying the salaries.
Trial-court assistants are financed through the state’s Administration of Justice Fund, while court reporters are financed through both the fund and the state’s real estate transfer tax.
The Administration of Justice Fund is financed through uniform filing fees and court costs, said state budget administrator Brandon Sharp. Because of declining revenue, it nearly ran out of money two years ago. Gov. Mike Beebe had to bail it out three times then, making emergency transfers totaling $130,000 so the salaries could be paid. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel also agreed to contribute $450,000 from past legal settlements to prop up the program, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in February 2012.
The cost of the court reporters has increased from $8.3 million in fiscal 2009 to $9.5 million in fiscal 2013, and the cost of the trial-court assistants has increased from $6 million in fiscal 2009 to $7 million in fiscal 2013, Sharp said.
The financial condition of the fund is improving as a result of measures enacted by the 2013 Legislature,he said, and employees paid from the fund are getting 2 percent cost-of-living raises in fiscal 2014.
Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, said the Legislature has created salary inequities among both court reporters and trial-court assistants over the past 20 years.
He said he has 10 letters from both new and veteran circuit judges seeking larger salaries for court employees.
Lamoureux said he wishes each court reporter and trial-court assistant was paid the same amount in salary, just as the circuit judges are paid the same salary set by the Legislature.
A circuit judge’s salary is $136,257 in fiscal 2014.
Circuit Judge Charles Yeargan of Glenwood told lawmakers that his court reporter, who has more than 16 years of experience, is paid $45,000 annually while other court reporters, with less than three years of experience, make more than $50,000.
Yeargan’s trial-court assistant, with 10 years’ experience, makes less money than some of her newly hired colleagues, he added.
Sharp said it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Administration of Justice Fund to pay for raises for court reporters and trial-court assistants “to deal with salary equity” in fiscal 2014. The Legislature will meet in its fiscal session starting Feb. 10.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 10/24/2013