FISCAL NOTE

Senate Bill 203 as passed the House would increase the obligations of the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC), according to AOC, by an estimated $2.7 million in fiscal year 2023 and $1.7 million in fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter to: (1) collect and report certain municipal court and municipality data; (2) provide each municipal court access to a court docketing and case management system, no later than January 1, 2024; and (3) provide training and resources on this system to certain municipal court personnel. This increase in AOC’s obligations could be partially offset by municipal court cost collections transferred to AOC for failure of a municipal court to submit the data required this bill, as provided by this bill.

In addition, this bill will increase the obligations of municipalities, including municipal courts authorized by law to collect fines and fees, by an undetermined amount to: (1) annually submit certain data on court cases, fines, fees, court expenditure data, and municipality budget information to AOC; and (2) have a financial audit performed by an independent certified public accountant or the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts on the revenue collected through fines and fees for municipal courts that fail to comply with the provisions of this bill, upon request by certain elected officials. This increase in municipal obligations could be offset by allowing the use of current revenues collected from fines and fees, including municipal corrections fund monies, to defray the costs to comply with the provisions of this bill, as provided by this bill.

Further, this bill could reduce revenues to municipalities and/or municipal courts by an undetermined amount dependent upon the amount of fees and fines collected by the court or municipality that would otherwise have remained in the court or municipality but, due to the provisions of this bill, would be forfeited by the municipal court/municipality for failure to comply with the reporting and subsequently transferred to AOC.

In addition, this bill could increase the administrative obligations of the Department of Finance, by an undetermined amount, to digitize current municipal court reporting forms by January 1, 2023, and publish these reports on its website.