CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is proposing a larger budget compared to its current allocation due to changes involving the court and lower systems.
The court is requesting $146.3 million from the state Legislature for the next fiscal year, a 5.3% increase from its current $139 million budget. Justice John Hutchison told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday the increase is tied to judicial pay raises, anticipated costs increases and operating the new Intermediate Court of Appeals.
“If you look at our budget process and you look at our budget breakdown, you will see that 82.4% of our budget goes to personnel costs,” Hutchison said. “Most of those are in your counties and not in Charleston.”
According to Hutchison, around 120 court employees of the 1,572 budget workforce are in the Charleston area. Around 5% of the budget’s estimated funding will go toward operations of the state Supreme Court.
“It gives you an idea of how much our budget is spread across the state and not concentrated in Charleston,” he said.
“All the other employees work for other divisions, work for circuit judges, work for magistrates, work for family cour judges.”
The Supreme Court’s budget includes around $4.4 million for the new Intermediate Court of Appeals; the Legislature approved creating the court in the 2021 session for handling appeals from lower courts, state agencies and the Workers’ Compensation Office of Judges.